To what level are you willing to commit the gifts and talents you have been
given in pursuit of enterprise, in order to receive a return beyond any of your
temporal aspirations?
Sounds like a good deal doesn't it. But why do so few venture into that
adventure. Perhaps there has been no cognizant voice within our society that
dares to ask that question, and mean it.
Western society while being the most responsive to the worth of the
individual, still starts with the assumption that you are descended from a
monkey. The best you can hope for is the development of your self esteem, but
that by its very nature tends to isolate you from the community of other
persons. Eastern culture is of course much worse. Blow the karma thing and you
could come back as a cow, a rat, or even a grasshopper. That provides no great
emphasis on taking risks into the unknown.
Only in the culture that traces its roots to the covenant between God and a
obscure group of stiff necked, stubborn people do you find the trace of the
invaluable worth of humanity. The Bible says that man was created in the image
of God. As a created creature he shares with monkeys, cows, rats and
grasshoppers certain genetic and physiological attributes, but the Bible says
that man is truly an unique creation. And if you look at it seriously you must
agree.
There are forces within the Christian community that ask, "What would
Jesus do?" That by its very nature cheapens what Jesus did, and at the
same times focuses the response of the individual into some sort of shallow
moralistic response. This shallowness also allows the individual to foster a
false self righteous image, degrading the worth of the person into some
perceived notion of American religious piety.
This week in our look at enterprise, which is only a man given attribute,
let us look at a couple of examples that could separate, certain individuals
from the masses, who rightfully described by Thoreau, "Lead lives of quiet
desperation!" Now sometimes I make up people to satisfy my creative urge,
but these are brief snap shots of real folks, who for some reason are in the
process of living out that commitment beyond themselves, who most of the time,
not even remotely understanding the why. Even with some sort of vision of the
outcome, still wonder most of the time, if even that vision can be relied upon.
But the point, or the essence of this whole endeavor, is that you can only
receive, that which truly you are willing to commit your life.
This particular man had been tested in many ways by the state and found that
he was not gifted with the ability to learn to read and write. Now this was
really troubling to him because, while most people who met him would consider
him slow, it was not readily apparent he was so severely handicapped. He could
get by functioning in isolation on his own, but the state and everyone else had
determined he would always be that way. The cheapest, most effective way to
treat him was to set him up in an apartment and let him get by the best he
could, supplying the support he would never be able to earn himself.
Someone along the line thinking they were doing him a favor, had given him a
Bible, not knowing of course that he could never read it. After many months
isolated knowing no one believed that there was any hope for him, he got this
strange idea that God could teach him to read. Unless there is a God who
created man and his language, this would be more impossible than his defined
state. If you see a "w" and an "i" and a "t" and
a "h" how do you know that really is "with" unless someone
tells you.
I met this person many years later, someone had recommended me to help him
polish his testimony. God had not only taught him to read, but also to write.
Over a period of many years alone, spending that capital he had been given,
that he was not able to learn to read and write, he learned to read and write.
All I really did, was show him in his testimony, some of the holes that normal
people would have to have filled, and he filled them in his own words, all I
did was make some minor changes in syntax, grammar and punctuation.
She was gifted in another way, with a remarkable natural appearance. So much
so, that men always looked and dreamed, and women were jealous. With a whole
life history of this status, it is easy to be like the man above, "This is
all I have to offer. Or perhaps this is all the world will let me offer."
No one was willing to look beyond her natural looks to understand that she was
just like everyone else. Perhaps her inner fears were more intense, because she
was really not able to function in a total environment, where she could use her
more remarkable gifts. This is an isolation that could be as intense as the
state imposed isolation with the man. "But what if God could use me in a
deeper way?"
As with the man, the exchange of the capital of natural looks for eternal
beauty is not a cheap one day commitment. It really begins where self esteem is
weighed and found wanting, or just so much dross. It is easy for us to say,
"Well I wish I was so well equipped!" But as long as we are only
willing to look at the outside, we not only limit her, but we also limit
ourselves, by believing that this world is all there is, we limit our own
growth to the tangible wisps of stuff that is only fleeting. God is able to
carry out her transformation in that same isolation, without most people even
knowing the incredible work that God is doing internally and eternally. Her God
given husband could one day remark, "When I met you all your good looks
could do was to get me into trouble, but now your developing eternal beauty is
all I need to keep me out of that kind of trouble and much more of everlasting
value!"
God's work is the power that makes our commitment to enterprise of value. If
we contribute nothing of worth or only a portion of our being, we can only
receive a portion of that symbiotic growth we could have received. If all you
contribute is that which costs you nothing, nothing is all you shall receive.
But if you contribute that which costs you everything and even more than you
envisioned you could contribute, your enterprises, how ever you may define
them, will be blessed by that God that gives the increase. I once heard someone
say, "The only crop you can grow in a week is sprouts!" While that
was offered within the context of western personal development , it is a truth
of common grace even more relevant in context of, and is the essence of
enterprise symbiosis.
Preachers and writers many times find themselves working to understand there
own situation. Just the thought of venturing beyond your comfort zone is scary
at least, for we have been mistakenly taught that we hold the future in our own
hands. This week I have been looking at the cost of what I am receiving and am
truly thankful that God has ask me to give so much and I in a way would like to
give more but I really don't want to express that, because I truly don't
understand that meaning. As David said in essence, "I cannot give to God
that which costs me nothing." So that which we give to God, that which
costs us everything, is rewarded with a return this world and we cannot
evaluate, except through the mantel of God's grace for it is only God who truly
understands the wealth and the worth he has bequeath to man.
Today I made a call about obtaining that property I have written about
before. The thought of living out this Enterprise Symbiosis in front of God and
everybody is truly scary. We always hear stories about not wanting to be a
missionary to Africa, but to me heading to a remote area of the lower forty
eight, a few miles from where my great grandfather abandoned his family, for
perfectly good natural reasons, does not bring forth warm fuzzy feelings of a
walk in the woods on a sunny afternoon. For this to work, my contribution must
be more than doing it in a way that I can understand and it scares me. But I
have learned, as the two people above, that God's grace is only supplied to
fill the need, and we all are needy people, in need of assurance of God's love
for us no matter the circumstances. That is part of our testimony, and the
testimony of the church throughout history. To love one another as God loves
these examples above, must be our example. We all are just so much clay, shaped
and molded by God, what an amazing gift it is to understand even a little
portion of that. Please pray for provision for this enterprise as God leads and
provides.