The Graceline

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. ---Matthew 24:12-13

Consider if you will the postage stamp. Its total usefulness consists in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets done. I have not looked looked it up, but has the word, commitment, been deleted from the dictionary? Even postage stamps are useless without commitment, or as I like to call it... stick-to-it-ivity. I don’t see much of that today.
You may have heard the story of the hen and the pig walking past a country church one day. There was a sign in the yard that said: Ham & Egg Breakfast Sunday, 7:00 a.m. The hen said to the pig, “Sounds good, to me. Why don’t we drop by and make a contribution for the breakfast?”
The pig replied, “It may be just a contribution for you, but for me, it’s total commitment!”
Where have all our heroes gone? What ever happened to our role models? Where are the men and women of courage, character and commitment who forged ahead against overwhelming opposition to clear the way for others to follow? In the past, there were a few willing to make the sacrifice for the good of others. Today, there are practically none. Why?
In 1945, there were no Blacks in major league baseball. A young Black man of extraordinary talent and intestinal fortitude began to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Branch Richey of the Dodgers took the young man aside and gave him the following prophecy: “It won’t be easy. You’ll be heckled from the bench. They’ll call you every name in the book. The pitchers will throw at your head. They’ll make it plain they don’t like you, and they’ll try to make it so tough that you’ll give it all up and quit. But you won’t fight back either. You’ll have to take everything they dish out and never strike back. Do you have the guts it will take?” (Hal Butler, Sports Heroes Who Wouldn’t Quit [New York: Simon & Shuster, Inc., 1973], p.46)
Jackie Robinson did, indeed, have the “guts.” Not only did he survive, but he surpassed many of the game’s greats. In 1947, he was the National League’s Rookie of the Year, and in 1949, the Most Valuable Player. He is now a member of the Hall of Fame. Because Jackie was willing to “take the lick” to open the door of opportunity, many players of all races and ethnic groups are professional athletes today.
There was another young man several hundred years ago that was born in humble beginnings. His parents were slandered in the rumor mill because His mom was pregnant and not officially married. He carried the stigma of being an illegitimate child the rest of His life. He was born in a smelly stable among sheep and cows. He grew up with dirt under His nails and splinters in His fingers serving as a carpenter’s apprentice with His dad. He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man until He entered the ministry at the age of thirty. Then He was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil for forty days. When He came back in the power of the Spirit, the religious establishment slandered, mocked and tried to kill Him for over three years. He was misunderstood, ridiculed, mocked, mistreated, betrayed and ultimately crucified. And He never did a single thing wrong. While nailed to a cross, He even lost sight of His Father God. Nevertheless, He hung there. He never entertained the thought of coming down. For you see, it was not nails that kept Him on the cross. It was love. The first cousin of love is commitment.
Jesus could have called it quits and ended His suffering, but He was totally committed to His Father’s will as well as to you and me. He blazed the trail.
Watchman Nee once said,“Every suffering Jesus bore ripened into the fruit of obedience. No suffering of any kind was ever able to stir Him to murmuring or fretting.” Jesus never griped much less entertained thoughts of giving up.
How about you? What things in your life are most important to you? How committed are you to them? Are you willing to die for them? Is there anything that means everything to you? There are two kinds of people in the world: trail blazers and pathfinders. Those who take the road less traveled and those who take the broad way. There are those who make a difference, and those to whom it makes no difference. Which one are you?