Excellence; the High Calling
Index
Chapter 1 Cruising Down the River.....................................................1
Chapter 2 Packing For the High Country...........................................27
Chapter 3 That Sweet Aroma of Excellence......................................53
Chapter 4 The Fine Agape Filter........................................................75
Chapter 5 Calling Quality People........................................................95
Chapter 6 Calling Quality People (2).................................................115
Chapter 7 Misfits and Speckled Birds................................................133
Chapter 8 How Jesus Did It...............................................................159
Chapter 9 Like a Refreshing Wind.....................................................187
Chapter 10 Staggering Excellence.....................................................205
Chapter 11 Follow the Compass.........................................................229
Chapter 12 The Excellence of the Unexpected...................................257
Chapter 13 And Then Some................................................................281
Chapter 14 The Road Not Taken........................................................303
Cruising Down the River
In central Texas, summers get hot--really, sticky hot! When I lived there some years ago, Austin always baked and sweltered in the summer heat and humidity. And in that heat, the lovely Colorado River running through Austin didnt run any more. It seemed to slow down like everything else did. Meandering slow and sleepily in and around the city, that beautiful river headed out of town and made its way westward. But it never got in a hurry; it was too hot for that.
In the days we lived there in Austin, my friend Chris owned bottom land down by that river. One spring, he got on his tractor and plowed up space for two large gardens: one for his family, and one for mine. With great excitement, my whole family took our tools and went to work that plot. We planted green beans, tomatoes, onions truck loads of all sorts of vegetables.
But the two things we didnt consider were weeds and work. We had to go out two or three times a week just to chop weeds. That wasnt much fun, so my children deserted the project quickly. Soon it became an overwhelming task. The weeds just kept growing, and the help dwindled. The work lost its joy, but we had to make the effort, or the next week we would be farther behind. .
One day I had gone out to the weed patch as we had named it. I went alone to chop and pull the ever-present weeds, and to look over my garden. The afternoon was hot and still. The air seemed to stifle activity. As I worked, breathing in the hot, humid air, I prayed for just a little breeze to spring up. Perspiration dripped off my chin. My shirt was soon soaked. After a very few minutes despair set in. I was ready to admit that the weeds were more powerful than I. They were winning. Weeds dont get heat stroke, but I was about to.
Suddenly, a wonderful thought came to mind: just about 100 yards away were the shady banks of the river. Why not take a dip? The very idea cooled me as I turned to walk toward that water.
Passing through the pasture, I shucked off my shirt, my shoes and my socks. On the shady shore of that river, I tested the water with my toe. Then I waded into the cool river gasping, sucking air and saying Ooh! Ooh! with shuddering delight.
The current was so gentle! The bottom was smooth, and the water was waist-deep and refreshing. I checked it out: no holes; no danger. I began splashing, then I would dive a bit. Finally, I lay down on my back and floated in the water. What an exhilarating sensation!
I found out that by just lying on my back and bobbing along in the water, I could move with the current at a lazy pace. The water carried me ever so slowly along.
Floating on my back, I could look up at the trees that lined the bank. The sky was so blue! From my perspective, I could see the birds sitting on tree limbs, singing their summer songs. At most points along the way, I could put my hands down and touch the bottom. I could stop any time I wanted, but who wanted to? I had found the perfect way to cool off on a blistering dayjust riding the slow-creeping current. I can still remember the feeling.
I enjoyed that sensation for some timeperhaps fifteen or twenty minutes. Then the thought struck me that perhaps I had floated and rested long enough. Slowly and sleepily I raised my head and looked back up the shore line. I couldnt see my tools or my clothes. I had floated out of sight of my entering spot.
How far had I gone? Fifty yards? A hundred? Perhaps even more? There was no real panic that hit me, but I decided it was time for me to stop riding the current. I needed to start back up river to where I got in.
I stood up. And when I did, everything changed. That gentle, lazy current that had so softly carried me away, was not so gentle now. No, it wasnt roaring, just insistent. A small, foamy white wake began to form around my waist as the water flowed by. A shushing, gurgling sound came from that foambeckoning me to lay back and continue on down the river.
The flowing water was still slow, but powerful and heavy against my waist. It seemed to say, Hey, what do you mean standing up against me? We can get along fine so long as you go my way, but dont try to fight against the flow.
Struggling back up river was tough. I found that walking against the current at waist depth was almost impossible. And swimming was futile also. After fifteen or twenty strokes, I found myself almost exactly where I started. Getting back out of the river and hiking along shore wouldnt work either the trees and underbrush were too dense. The only thing to do was to wade close to shore, and slosh along, huffing and puffing in the shallows. Even that was hard work, trying to lift my feet high out of the water, trying not to stumble over logs, trying to keep my balance.
Two things I will never forget about that day: (1) I will never forget how enjoyable and refreshing it was to go down that river and (2) I will never forget the struggle to stand up and head back.
OUR MODERN RIVER
That story is a modern day parable for those of us interested in finding and pursuing the path of Excellence.
There is a river running through our lives. It is the river of worldly culture. The man chopping weeds represents all of us. We are just trying to get along, but we are uncomfortable. We wish we could find something better something easier. We look longingly toward that slow- flowing river of the world. We approach it, and we test the waters. We like it. It feels good! In fact it is breathtaking.
But wait! God, who calls us to the high ground of excellence, is not pleased with our excursion into this water. He warned us,
Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:14,15).
Sin? Death? That is heady stuff! Ah, but not to worry! We dont plan to stay in the river. For us, it will be just in and out. This is merely a resting spot where we can just float and take it easy for a bit.
So we wade in for a temporary dip, then as we get accustomed to the world, we start to really like it, and we begin diving. Ah, the world is so refreshing and enticing! Very soon, we learn to float, and it feels good to go along with the current.
On that trip down stream, many of us have grown to enjoy the journey. We dont consider where we are, or where we are going. Its just that the living is so easy.
THE CHRISTIANS FAILURE
Even we Christians are floating along just like everybody else. We feel a bit guilty about going the way of the world, because disciples of Jesus are not to love the world (1 John 2:15). But everyone else is doing it, we whine. The river is filled with people doing their thing, and enjoying it. Everybody is going along, drifting down stream so comfortably and so easily. Why cant I? What is so wrong with itjust for a little while?
But it keeps coming back again and again: we Christians were not meant to just go along. We are supposed to stand up, get out of the world and walk the high road that leads to excellence.
Yes, we know all that. And we will . . someday . . . one of these days. . . . sure we will!
Someday is that mythical day when all of us are going to do better.
Someday is the day that every slacker will become a worker, when every house will be painted, every lawn mowed, every car washed and every sinner will become a saint.
And on that same someday, we Christians are going to stop, get out of the world and become excellent disciples.
Someday, we are going to be bound for the high country of excellence.
On that day every church building will be full. Why, we will put the Devil out of business . . . someday! But meanwhile, we float along with grand intentions.
NOTICE WHAT HAS HAPPENED
To be perfectly honest, too many of us Christians have not even made an effort to stop or stand up against the current, much less to get out of the river.
If we were to look up and get our bearings, we would discover that we have moved an alarming distance down the river. We are no longer at the spot where we got innot by a long shot. We have moved, and the direction of our movement has consistently been away and down. It isnt discernable, but our floating has taken us downhill as well as down stream. We never moved fast, but we have moved considerably.
And the ride is actually changing us believers. Many of us are not the Christians we used to be. Why? Because we find ourselves drifting from our God-given purpose. We have been mesmerized by the ease of the journey.
Yes, we still claim to be Christians. We try to live the ethical and moral life, but the landscape is changing. Being a moral Christian in this age is not the same as being one fifty years ago.
Flowing down this river, the world (and Christians with them) is becoming so much worse. The Christian influence is getting less and less because we are getting to be less and less different from everyone else. We are more and more a part of their culture. Instead of thermostats that detect the change in temperature and change it, we have been acting like thermometers, just reflecting the change and not making a difference in anything. We are not acting upon our culture; instead we are being acted upon.
HAVE YOU NOTICED?
Has it hit you that the filthy things that used to disgust and sicken you are no longer disgusting or sickening? I have noticed it. In fact, we are not so sure that these things really are so filthy any more.
Alexander Pope was correct when he wrote:
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
It is strange and frightening, what I have endured, then pitied and then embraced over the years. Things I would not tolerate 30 years ago, I will tolerate now. And let me tell you; I am old enough to be frightened by this slow carrying away. I almost shudder to see the changesnot just in our culture, but in me.
Some young people reading this might not be so worried. They inherited this generation. They havent watched it change like we older ones have. But young people, believe me: you are going along too.
I try not to be an old fuddy-duddy. I know I am of one generation, and am speaking (perhaps) to anotherto a younger one. But, has it come to the point where generations cannot talk to and understand one another? If I am a tweener and you are an Xer, can I not still speak truth and you understand it as truth?
I have lived through the fifties up to this good day. I have the perspective of the years. I can see how I have changed along with the American culture. I agree with the sage who said: Once we calm our conscience by calling something a necessary evil, it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.
I share the following stories with you, not so I can live in the past, but merely to show you the change in American society.
HOW FAR THE RIVER HAS CARRIED US
In 1939, when Clark Gable uttered a mild oath in Gone With the Wind, it caused a nationwide sensation. Today obscenities spew forth from our music CDs and televisions like sewage out of a broken pipe. Little children use words that would make sailors blush.
In the late 90's, the singing group 2 Live Crew declared on a CD that they could be as Nasty As We Wanna Be. They made what was then the most obscene music CD ever made. And they got away with it. People wanted to sue them and take their music off the shelves, but our culture couldnt even define what obscene was.
Cruising down the river . . .
In the 50's, when film star Ingrid Bergman abandoned her husband to live with Roberto Rossalini, her film career in this country plummeted. One of the movies greatest stars couldnt get a job. Why? Because our nation wouldnt tolerate her adultery. Today, such behavior would not even cause a ripple. One fourth of all couples live together before marriage as though it was a happy tradition. They call it a test drive before buying the car.
In September 1956, (as a very, very young boy, you understand), I can remember my aunt telling me about this immoral ogre named Elvis Presley. I had missed that famous Sunday night telecast on the Ed Sullivan show that made Elvis famous, but Aunt Neve had witnessed his ungodly display on TV.
When he first made that television appearance, the cameras would only show him from the chest up. Swiveling hips would debauch our youth, right? Compare that with MTV today, where little is left to the imagination.
A young, rising music star, Jessica Simpson, is from a Christian home. By the time she was 14, she was beautiful and fully matured physically. Record producers saw the star quality in her, but hoped she would be another amoral babe: who would go along with their wicked plans for her. When she signed a contract with her record company, she told the president of her record label that she wanted to be a moral example to all the young girls in America. The president of the record company told her that, in all his years, no one had ever said such a thing in his office.
When she had her first hit, they wanted her to make hotter and raunchier videos. She refused, and it almost meant the end of her career. One director suggested that she at least have a six pack of beer in her video, just to take away the innocent look. He explained that the world did not want such purity in their singers.
The first time I realized how far I had drifted was back in the 1970's when the movie Rocky came out. My wife and I went with our friends, Mark and Karen, to see the movie. We had heard the film was great. And sure enough, all four of us came back raving about it. We dubbed it one of the best movies we had seen in years.
Karen was so excited about it, she called her Christian grandfather (who had once been a boxer) and told him, Granddad, you just have to see this film called, Rocky. Im going to take you next Thursday. He didnt want to go. He was getting old, and movie-going didnt interest him much any more. He hadnt been to a movie in 15 yearsbut he gave in to her persistent insistence, and attended with her.
But as she sat watching the movie with her righteous old Grandfather, she suddenly began to hear curse words from the actors on the screen that she hadnt even noticed the week before. She said nothing, but it embarrassed her that she had brought her innocent, unsuspecting grandfather to hear such talk.
The following week, she called him again and apologized.
Granddad, I am sorry I took you to that movie. It had more cursing in it than I had remembered.
He forgave her, but added, Honey, I have to admit that it really bothered my conscience. I havent slept well for days since seeing that movie. I have to say that it was the filthiest thing I have ever seen in my life.
The filthiest thing??? Ever? In his whole life? He surely had lived a sheltered life, hadnt he? Yet, who had changed? Not himus! He was purer for it. We were the ones
It was strange: I had thought it was a good movie, too. I hadnt heard the cursing. I had grown accustomed to it. I began at that point to ask myself, Just how affected have I been? Has this slow river so completely changed me? Am I just going along, flowing down to the cesspool?
And you, too, may have been more affected than you realize. For example, have you ever spoken to a friend about a movie you just saw? Listen to yourself. Have you ever said, Oh it had a little bad language (or sex, or drugs, or any other filthy thing), but other than that, it was a good show.? Do you ever get the feeling you might be in the process of going down the river? Slow currents can still be dangerous currents.
The other day, I was surfing through the TV channels. I came upon a dirty movie. At least, they had called it that when it came out back in the sixties.
It was titled And God Created Woman. In that 1960's movie, Bridget Bardot, the sexy young French starlet, set Hollywood on its ear with her sex appeal. When she hit the movie screens bearing more skin than anyone before, moral people called her shameless. She was an immoral woman, and folks were incensed that America was going to hell in a handbasket.
We were warned: No Christian should be caught dead going to that film. It was a spawn of hell. So I did the right thing. I stayed away. I didnt go to that movie; though as a young healthy man, all my newly-acting hormones raged to see it.
So all these years later, when I saw that title on the TV screen, I thought filth, and got ready to surf on. Then I looked at the cable rating at the bottom of the screen. The movie, dear reader, had been given a PG rating!
Now mind you, this movie had not been edited for television. It is just that, over the years, that filth has been surpassed by worse filth.
Today, this old film was mildeven bland and blase. Why? Because, since the 60's, films had been produced that were so many times worse. What had been so immoral in the 60's was no longer even titillating to the modern viewer.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah faced a blatant, sin-loving civilization like ours. Jeremiah said to his people,
You have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame (Jeremiah 3:3).
Later the same prophet said the same thing in Chapter Six, and repeated it in Chapter Eight:
Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush (Jeremiah 6:15 and 8:12.).
But what about us? Does anything make us blush? What bothers us? What disgusts us? At what point will any of us stop and say No more! I will not tolerate this any longer!?
Indeed, we are cruising down the riverso easily. We are going so softly and perhaps slowly, but make no mistake: we are movingdown, down, down.
And, as we floated, the river has lulled us almost to sleep. We still dont consider ourselves compromised. It is not that we feel dirty or anything. Its just that we are more mature now.
We look back and smile at the innocence of those earlier days, and those naive people who lived in them. Except, there is nothing to smile about. The change is not cute or funny or sweet.
If those early days were innocent, what does that say about our days? Have we just lost our innocence, or have we lost more? And can we ever get it back? Would anyone want to?
The very fact that we arent concernedshould concern us. Could our God be pleased with the loss of our naivete?
William Barclay, the great English Biblical scholar, once said The only defense any society has against sin is its ability to be shocked by it.
THE CHRISTIANS MISSION
We Christians were put into this world to purify it. We are to salt it with righteousness, and leaven it with our holiness. Our job is to slow down the cultural flow to damnation and snatch some people out of sinbefore it is too late (Jude 1:23).
But how are we to do that? To save our culture, shouldnt we be separate from the culture we are trying to save? If we are to snatch people out of the fire (as Jude said), shouldnt someone be standing outside the fire? To our shame, most Christians are too busy floating along with the culture, to save anyone out of it.
We modern Christians are not really crying out against this immorality. Oh, some are making an effort, but we are not saying much; and we are not saying it loudly. As a result, the world isnt listening. Most of us Christians are just going along, not even saying a mumbling word of protest.
Back in the late 1990's, George Barna and his associates did a huge poll on what Christians in America believe and practice. They asked these Christians 131 questions about their lifestyles, then asked a large number of non-believers the same questions. All these results were compared, and do you know what Barna found? He announced that, there was no discernable difference between the Pagan and the Christian in their core beliefs and lifestyles. None!
Back in the first century, Christian saints drew the wrath of the pagan culture in which they were living. Persecutions were breaking out against them all the time. But today, modern saints cant even get the worlds attention, much less its wrath. Why? Because we look, smell and sound too much like the world.
The late preacher and writer, Vance Havner was right when he lamented, We Christians are so subnormal that if we ever became normal we would be considered abnormal!
THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
How long? How long will we drift lazily along with the world? How long will we tolerate this deterioration, as we are carried lower and lower? Even a dead fish can float with the current. But, can Christians allow themselves this luxury? Listen to the echoing command of Christ:
Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you (2 Corinthians 6:17).
The call is to wake up before it is too late. The call is to get out of the filth and rise higher: Stop that floating, God says, get out of the river and come along to higher ground.
Ah, but that soft current never stops. It is carrying us away farther and farther from Christ and the happy life He wants to give us. Yet, the current feels so good! As Mae
