THE FORK IN THE ROAD
The
people who say, ‘I did it all myself,’ and think of themselves as Horatio Alger ---- believe
me, they’d bid more to be in the United States than in Bangladesh. That’s the Ovarian Lottery.1
Beware
that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His
commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today (Deuteronomy 8:11).
Yogi Berra famously said, “When
you see the fork in the road, take it.”2
We come to a fork in the road
many times each day. One way leads to
living legally and the other way leads to living biblically. The road of living legally is paved with
manmade laws. The road of living
biblically is paved with God’s laws. Sometimes
the roads run parallel; sometimes they diverge.
Which road do we choose? Which way
do we go?
Given
a choice, most people will elect easy over hard and living legally is often
perceived as being easier than living biblically. Going back to the example of President
Clinton, he did what was required legally. He paid a large sum of money to
settle a lawsuit; he paid a penalty; and, he resigned his license to practice
law. Those were not easy things to do
but, in his view, they were easier than living biblically.
In
addition to compensating Ms. Jones and accepting punishment for his misleading
testimony, living biblically would have required an admission of wrongdoing and
a resolve not to engage in sinful behavior again. Of course, we don’t know if President Clinton
admitted his sinful behavior to God but, as events unfolded and evidence of
additional sexual misconduct came to light, it does not appear that he resolved
to change his behavior.
The
Bible is clear that genuine repentance also includes a fundamental change in
the person. The Old Testament Prophet
Jeremiah scolded those who sought to kill him.
He writes, “Now therefore amend
your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Jeremiah 26:13). It appears that President Clinton stopped
short of amending his ways and deeds; he chose the fork in the road leading
toward living legally instead.
Choosing
the wrong road to follow is not the province only of people in lofty positions
like presidents, Congressmen and women, and famous sports and movie stars. Each of us needs to keep a keen eye on our
own decisions as well.
Prominent among the things which
influence our decisions about which road to take is lack of trust in God. The path of living legally allows us to do
things our way and we judge that to be preferable to doing things God’s
way. So convinced are we that we can
direct our lives better than God can, that we consistently choose compliance
with manmade laws over obedience to God’s laws.
The
generation of so-called Baby Boomers especially has been raised to value
self-reliance but they are not the only ones whose pride has gotten in the way
of obedience to God. People have always
wanted to do it their way to the detriment of following God’s advice. Moses warned the Israelites about
self-reliance.
He
said, “Beware
that you do not forget
the Lord your God by not keeping
His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you
today . . .” (Deuteronomy 8:11). He
warned the Israelites about the dire consequences of not living according to
God’s instructions but they, like us, did not listen. I think of this as “The Strength of My Arm
Syndrome”.
The Israelites journeyed for forty years in the
desert of the Sinai Peninsula. They had
no homes, unless one could call a tent a home, and their possessions were few. Their grumblings about the lack of food and
water are well documented. As they
prepared to enter the Promised Land they camped on the plains of Moab, a
desolate area north of the Dead Sea.
Knowing the propensities of his people, Moses reminded them of all that
the Lord had done for them and he warned them not to take credit for the riches
they would soon enjoy. His words are a
warning for our times as well.
First, Moses instructed the Israelites
to bless the Lord for the good land which he was given them and he instructed
them not to ignore God’s commandments, ordinances, and statutes. He said, “When
you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the
good land which he has given you. Beware
that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and
His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today . . .” (Deuteronomy
8:10-11).
Next, Moses foretold of their pride
and forgetfulness. He continued, “. . .
otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses
and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver
and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will
become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the
land of Egypt, out of the hours of slavery (Deuteronomy 8:12-14).3
Next, Moses reminded them of God’s
faithfulness. “He led you through the
great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and
thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water to you out of the
rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed
you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He
might test you, to do good for you in the end”
(Deuteronomy 8:15-17).
Unlike the picture of abundance and
satisfaction projected in the Deuteronomy 8:12-14, Moses paints a picture of
extreme deprivation in Deuteronomy 8:15-17.
His point is simple. Whether our
circumstances are those of plenty or those of painful scarcity, God is the
source of whatever we have. He came
raise us up or he can humble us to test us.
Finally, Moses came to the punch line. “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My
power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth’. But you shall remember the Lord your God, for
it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His
covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day (Deuteronomy
8:17-18).4
Lack of faith leads to self-reliance which
leads to pride and arrogance which lead to destruction. Moses concluded, “It shall come about if you
ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and
worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to
perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the
voice of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 8:19-20).
†
At one time in his life, renowned
investor, Warren Buffet, sold men’s clothing for J.C. Penny.5 That’s a long way from being worth tens of
billions of dollars. One might think
that he would take all of the credit for his unprecedented success; he does
not. In fact, he disparages his
importance in the eyes of others.
I was at my best giving
financial advice when I was twenty-one years old and people weren’t listening
to me. I could have gotten up there and
said the most brilliant things and not very much attention would have been paid
to me. And now I can say the dumbest
things in the world and a fair number of people will think there’s some great
hidden meaning to it or something.6
During a trip to China with
Bill and Melinda Gates, Buffet’s cruise ship passed through the Three Gorges
Dam project. He and others took an
excursion in longboats which were “poled and pulled by river trackers along an
upstream tributary of the river. A group
of ten men using ropes dragged each boat against the current . . .”7 At dinner that night, Buffet remarked, “There
could have been another Bill Gates among those men pulling our boat. They were born here, and they were destined
to spend their lives tugging those boats the way they did ours. They didn’t have a chance. It was pure luck that we had a shot at the
brass ring.”8
Buffet was not belittling the
men whose job it was to pull boats upstream nor was he touting his own
stature. He was enunciating his belief
that factors other than a person’s intelligence, dedication, and skill account
for success. He calls it winning the
Ovarian Lottery. His comments are worth reading in full.
I’ve had it so good in this
world, you know. The odds were
fifty-to-one against me being born in the United States in 1930. I won the lottery the day I emerged from the
womb by being in the United States instead of some other country where my
chances would have been way different. ‘Imagine
there are two identical twins in the womb, both equally bright energetic. And the genie says to them, “One of you is
going to be born in the United States, and one of you is going to be born in
Bangladesh. And if you wind up in
Bangladesh, you will pay no taxes. What
percentage of your income would you bid to be the one that is born in the
United States? It says something about
the fact that society has something to do with your fate and not just your
innate qualities. The people who say, ‘I
did it all myself,’ and think of themselves as Horatio Alger ---- believe me,
they’d bid more to be in the United States than in Bangladesh. That’s the Ovarian Lottery.’”9
Warren
Buffet’s Ovarian Lottery theory does not deny God’s sovereignty. It merely confirms that some people enjoy
advantages which others do not and they deceive themselves when they claim, “I
did it all myself”. Like Moses, Buffet
disparages The Strength of My Arm Syndrome.
In
the thousands of mediation conferences which I have conducted, I can remember
only one in which a successful businessman humbly acknowledged that he had simply
been in the right place at the right time.
The gentleman had a background in retailing certain kinds of products
for large department stores when he decided to manufacture and sell his own watches. He arranged for manufacturing overseas and
designed an attractive and modestly priced watched which quickly captured the
attention of a large segment of the buying public. Not too many years later he sold his company
for a huge profit. His product continues
to be produced and marketed today. It is
called Swatch. The man’s self-effacing
modesty stands out in my mind to this day; hundreds of other mediation participants
have tended to take far more credit for their success than did this man.
Far
more people take credit for their own success in life forgetting that pride is
the cousin of success and pride breeds self-reliance which is the prelude to
arrogance. We can think of it as the
Strength of My Arm Syndrome or the Horatio Alger complex. Either way that attitude influences us to
select the fork in the road leading to living legally.
One
could argue for an Ovarian Lottery in ancient times. Certainly, the circumstances of one’s birth
have always affected a person’s life.
But, that does not explain the matter entirely. People born in the best of circumstances such
as being born in the United States in 1930 (as Warren Buffet was) do not
necessarily prosper. On the other hand,
people born to lowly states in life sometimes do. Moses’ remarks to the Israelites are similar
to Buffet’s remarks in that they recognized forces outside of a person as
affecting that person’s success or failure but Moses pointed in a different
direction from Buffet’s Ovarian Lottery.
He pointed to God.
†
The Old Testament prophet, Micah, the great-grandson of King Saul, composed the book bearing his name in the Bible during the latter part of the eight century B.C. By that time God’s chosen people had strayed far from their covenant obligations. Micah asked the question which should be paramount in the lives of Christian men and women today. What does God expect from us? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you (Micah 6:8a). He answers simply, “But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8b).
Three
simple steps yet, man finds it difficult to follow God’s simple
instruction. And, why is that? We don’t
have to read very far into the Bible to get the answer. “Now the
serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made (Genesis 3:1).
Centuries
later, John wrote Satan is “the father of lies”
(John 8:44). We are up against a formidable opponent and alone we are not his
match.
Micah’s message was also about
addition and subtraction. In order to “do
justice”, we must eliminate lying, cheating, and stealing. To “love kindness” precludes anger, envy, and
aggression. And, “to walk humbly with
your God” takes care of the rest. So,
Micah’s message was about addition, the addition of God’s power to our daily
lives, and subtraction, eliminating lying, cheating, stealing, anger, envy, and
aggression from our lives.
LIVING LEGALLY | LIVING
BIBLICALLY
LIVING
LEGALLY: My successes are due to the strength of my arm. Never admit guilt.
LIVING
BIBLICALLY: When we walk humbly with God we acknowledge his hand in all of our
blessings. We readily admit our sins.
.
The year was 597 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar captured Jehoiachin, King of
Judah, and sent him into exile in Babylon along with the Old Testament prophet
Ezekiel. The northern kingdom of Israel
had long since fallen. In 586 B.C.,
Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed.
In their despair, the exiled Jews cried out,
“Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of
them. How then can we live?” (Ezekiel
33:10, NIV). How then can we live is a
cry for our times as well.10
God instructed Ezekiel to say to them,
“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from
their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!” (Ezekiel 33:11,
NIV).
God does not want us to continue in
our sinful behavior. For many of us, our
evil ways are the result of instinctive decision-making rather than intentional
choices. The first step in turning from
our evil ways and living biblically is to make intentional decisions when we
come to the fork in the road.
Instinctive or expedient decisions
often come when we are pressed for time.
Those decisions may or may not be biblical even if they are legal.
Take a minute to consider the forks in
the road you encounter in a day?
- What reading material do you choose?
- What entertainment opportunities do you and your family select?
- With whom do you spend your time?
- How to you and your family dress?
- How do you and your family talk to one another?
- On what do you spend your discretionary money?
- What do you do with your spare time?
Determine to choose the fork in the
road that leads to living biblically.
It may be that you and your family
routinely choose to watch television shows that are laden with sexual innuendo
and off color jokes. This is certainly
legal but it is not biblical. Perhaps
you or your children dress immodestly.
Perhaps you lapse into vulgar language or choose friends who do so. Dressing immodestly and using vulgarity are
not illegal but they are not biblical either.
Pray that God will open your eyes to every
fork in the road where you can choose to live legally or biblically. Make a list of the choices you make to live
legally. Then, pray that God will help you to make conscious decisions to live
biblically
KEY VERSE
. . . when you have eaten and are
satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your
silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart
will become proud
and you will forget
the Lord your God . . .
(Deuteronomy 8:12-14).
3. The Message translates these verses
differently. Where the NASB reads, “all
you have multiplies”, The Message says “watch your standard of living going up
and up”. Where the NASB says “your heart
will become proud”, The Message says “become so full of yourself and your
things”. Sometimes a contemporary
translation like The Message brings the message home better. (See, e.g. Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary
Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress Publishing Group, 2002).
4. The Message translates verse 17 as follows,
“If you start thinking to yourselves, 'I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich.
It's all mine!’ --- well, think again”. Moses dispels such a notion
entirely. Don’t even think about taking
credit for your new found wealth. The
Lord gave you the power to make that wealth.