November 18,19936
Dear Br. Justis:
Have you been praising the Lord recently? It’s been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of seeing or talking with you.
I hope you and Wendy are healthy and gaining affluence, if this
is your goal in life. Personally, I wouldn’t mind another
couple hundred dollars a month but then I could get accustomed
to this increase, necessitating another several hundred dollars
more next month, and so on, until I became wealthy and miserable,
because I didn’t have enough money to afford my yacht and
vacation house in Aspen. Much better to be poor and content, then
rich and miserable. However, I probably don’t have a choice,
so I might as well learn to be content with such things as I have
for I am more likely to have them then riches.
On the wall, over my computer, is a sign, I placed there several
days ago, It says, “To achieve success, do whatever it takes.”
That’s good advice, provided one knows what true success
is. Most people measure success by how much money they make or
how many people they know or how influential they become but the
Christian man measures success by whom he knows and who knows
him.
If we are known by the Lord and if we know Him then it may truly
be said that we are on our way to achieving true and lasting success.
It is important that men know their Lord, for He has a wonderfully
difficult work for us to do. Our work is to represent Christ to
everyone we meet, to reflect His glory or character, to live for
Christ in such a way that others will see Him in us. Can you think
of any more important work that has ever been committed to men?
We may rise no higher, in this earthly world, then an auto mechanic,
but we can be famous in God’s book of records for winning
many sons and daughters to the Lord through our manner of living.
When others see us, they should see Christ, but if they see us,
rather then seeing Christ, then we are failures. This is how a
Christian man measures success, by whom others see when they look
at him.
It is a work that the Lord has qualified us to do. We need not
spend years in training for we are already trained. We need not
invest in tools or materials, for He has equipped us for service.
All we need is a willingness to let go of our sins and let Him
direct our efforts but, for some men, this is easier said then
done. We delight in demonstrating how strong and influential and
wise we are, when in reality, we are weak, can’t influence
anyone, at least not in the right direction, and we are quite
foolish.
But then the Lord can use the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise, so maybe our foolishness is an asset after all.
The Lord has given you and me our work and we should get busy,
for the time is about to run out. We don’t have an eternity
in which to work for Christ, not at least on this earth, so let
us begin now to humbly confess our dilatory efforts and ask Him
for strength to be the men He intended us to be, fearless in living
for Him and reflecting His glory.
May the Lord richly bless you with a knowledge of Himself. Your
brother in Christ.
Allen A. Benson