© 2001 Rev. Gregory Young
© 2001 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
A group of friends went deer hunting. They separated into pairs. That night, one hunter returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck. The other hunters asked, “Where’s Harry?” The lone hunter replied, “Harry fainted a couple miles up the trail.” The others couldn’t believe it. “You mean you left him lying there and carried the deer back instead?” The man answered, “It was a tough call, but I figured no one was going to steal Harry.” To this deer hunter it was simply a matter of priorities. And one of the secrets of success in life is to have your priorities in order. In the late 1980’s and early '90s, Chris Spielman was an awesome linebackers for the Detroit Lions and the Buffalo Bills. Football was his passion, or so everyone thought. But in 1994, Chris Spielman gladly gave up football when his wife, Stefanie, was diagnosed with cancer. He moved into his wife’s hospital room and waited on her hand and foot. He only ate what she ate, only slept when she slept. When Stephanie lost her hair to chemotherapy, Chris shaved his head. He became the primary caretaker for their two children. Today, Stefanie is in remission and feeling good. And Chris has no regrets about giving up his career. As he says, “This is my family. This is my responsibility. This is my duty.” His family is his priority.
Jesus and his disciples had just arrived in Capernaum. When they settled in, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” Suddenly it got very quiet. Why? Because the disciples were embarrassed. They had been arguing about who was the greatest. They were arguing over who was number one. How is it that this argument seemed perfectly reasonable and important to the disciples until they had to share it with Jesus? Suddenly, they were able to see how petty their argument truly was — they didn’t want to tell Jesus what they were arguing about. You can almost envision Jesus here, coming up to his quarreling disciples and asking, “What are you fighting about?” “Oh, nothing,” would probably be their embarrassed response. The football player, Chris Spielman, might have at one time thought that winning football games was the most important thing in his life. It’s amazing how his priorities changed when someone he loved had her life threatened by disease.
Jesus called the twelve together and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.” (Mk. 9:35) And taking a child, he set him before those gathered, and taking the child in arms, Jesus said to them, “Whosoever receives one child like this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.” (Mk. 9:37)
Now, we are steeped in a culture in which success and performance are highly valued. We want to be number one-and there is nothing wrong with that. I was reading recently about a young woman from New York who dreamed of being a movie star. She moved to Hollywood, studied acting, and pounded the pavement looking for jobs. Our young actress claimed to be fresh off the farms of Montana-maybe the “farm girl-turned-starlet” angle would work for her. She was pretty, but not glamorous. She couldn’t sing or dance all that well. She was energetic and funny, but female comediennes were not very popular at that time. One of her colleagues even advised her, “Go back to Montana and just be a happy cowgirl.” But that’s not where this young women’s happiness lay. Eventually, she made a name for herself as the funniest woman in television, and she went on to become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. Her name? Lucille Ball There is nothing wrong with wanting to be successful. Personal ambition is a gift from God which motivates us to be the best that we can be and that is important, isn’t it? When you go to a doctor, you want to go to one who strives to be the best doctor they can be, don’t you? Who wants to go to a doctor that does the least that he or she has to do to get by? Not very reassuring, is it? When you get your car repaired, you would like to think that you have the best mechanic in town working on your car. There is nothing wrong with trying to be the best. As someone has said, “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” Striving to be number one is healthy as long as we are able to put it in the proper perspective. Winning isn’t everything neither is it the only thing. Notice that Jesus doesn’t scold his disciples for wanting to be number one. What he tried to do in our text for this morning is to put it into perspective.
Some anonymous writer put it like this: “Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them: work, family, health, friends, and faith and you’re keeping all of them in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends, and faith are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even, shattered. They will never be the same.” That is powerful imagery, isn’t it? Work is a rubber ball, but the other important things in life-family, health, friends, and faith are more fragile. If you neglect these other life concerns in your quest or obsession to be number one, your life will be empty, and your life will not really be a success.
A few years ago Tom Bloch resigned as chief executive office of H & R Block, the $1.7 billion tax-preparation and financial-services firm. Tom left behind his prestigious job to become a teacher at St. Francis Xavier middle school in Kansas City, MO. His annual salary suddenly dropped to less than $ 15,000 a year, about three percent of his old salary. But Bloch knew his hectic schedule as CEO had been interfering with his top priority: his wife and their two sons. “The hardest part was telling my father,” Bloch says, referring to H&R Block chairman Henry Bloch, who co-founded the company in 1955. “But I didn’t want to look back on my life,” Bloch continues, “and say, ‘Gee, you had an opportunity to play a bigger role in your children’s lives and didn’t take it.”’ Tom Bloch knew which ball was made of rubber and which one was made of glass.
In a way, this sermon is somewhat difficult for us, because we all want to succeed. There is tremendous pressure on all of us to be highly successful, and if we don’t watch it, we can lose some things that are precious, things that are truly important to us along the way.
Mark was, walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball, and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend. They arrived at Bill’s home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk. Then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after spending time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life.” Caring for another classmate, a fellow human being was a very high priority for Mark. Serving others, loving them is one of the supreme spiritual priorities for our lives. Here is a person who was able to see what was truly important to him in his life.
It is interesting that Jesus put a child in their midst as a.means of helping his disciples modify their priorities. Jesus knew that children are often the ones who remind us that our priorities are all out of whack. And our love for our children can help us motivate ourselves to get our lives back in their proper focus. Consider an article that appeared in People magazine recently about a man who regained his focus, thanks to his love for his daughter. Researchers report that of the few people who ever do lose substantial amounts of weight, most regain the weight within a few years. It seems so hard to find the motivation to lose the weight and keep it off. But Randy Leamer didn’t have a problem with motivation. He knew if he didn’t lose weight, his little daughter might die. At only eighteen-months old, Meagan Leamer was diagnosed with severe kidney disease. No matter what treatment the doctors tried with her, the toddler just kept getting worse. By the age of five, Meagan desperately needed a kidney transplant. Meagen’s parents, Randy and Genie Leamer, were more that willing to donate an organ to their daughter, and both were found to be good matches. But Genie’s family had a long history of kidney problems and high blood pressure, so an organ donation would be risky on her part. That left Meagan’s dad, Randy, as the only possible donor. There was only one problem; Randy Leamer weighed over 300 pounds. Doctors were afraid that in Randy’s condition he wouldn’t survive the surgery to harvest his kidney. So Randy determined to lose over $100 lbs. in order to prepare for his daughter’s surgery. He began exercising and eating a low-fat diet. Friends at work cheered him on and even brought in their old clothes for Randy when his clothes became too big for him. Within eight months, Randy Leaner had dropped to $194 lbs. Meagan’s kidney surgery was performed on December 12, 1997. Both Randy and Meagen have recovered fully from the surgery. Because of his love for his daughter, Randy Leamer took a needed action that in the long run may give him a longer life. All of us want to be the best that we can be. We perhaps all feel that going through life is kind of like a juggling act. That’s a given condition, and we can live with that. But remember that some of the balls we are juggling are made of rubber and some are made of precious glass. May God give each of us the wisdom and faith to set priorities which have lasting spiritual value.