Among the mysteries of society is the specialness of the individual. For every person there may be something special that needs to be found and identified in a way that serves awareness in that person and for a human relationship in some way – perhaps remote, perhaps close by. In my work over the decades, I have noted couples, especially on conference grounds where I was the speaker for family programs, giving more than the usual attention to their handicapped children. On occasion the parents, in the denial of some standard factors in mind and body, had recovered a bond that had been strained before this child arrived.
I have seen others, not perceptive of the highest meaning in themselves, choose divorce citing the tension caused by handicapped children – heaping fault on the child rather than themselves. They refuse to become what they were meant to be, by denial of their better selves. This pattern works in many ways to reveal persons in the results: a job gained or lost, an education concluded or failed; and a situation for better or worse. There is something in every person, imperfect, that no one can quite get, but God. Here is more of the mystery that attends faith and Christian formation.
We need to press the point further. This specialness is seen in business, and provides some consternation to the persons studying the circumstances and the people whose specialness becomes a public matter. In my lifetime, a lengthy list of men and women has been cited as creative to the point of mystery. How did they do it? The matter becomes obvious when no one else can match their otherworldly talents. Henry Ford developed a company that gave society the first mass produced car, but the Ford generations, better educated and fitted for purpose than the founder, could not match his genius. Sam Walton turned a country store in Arkansas into a massive company with hundreds of thousands of employees, but the company has wobbled a bit in the years following his death. The family has sought, and may have found adequate management. At this writing workers have gone on strike at several stores – not likely in Walton’s day. The management is trying to return to his homely genius. When I was a lad the A&P was the great food chain. After the founder died, the management could not find his genius. That specialness was deliberately taken over by Walton in his own company. Charles Schwab had to return to Wall Street to rescue his company after his first retirement. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and now among the richest men in the world, turned Microsoft over to his colleague and friend. He struggled to hold course. In the days since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has been the focus of concern over the future. When Jobs was fired as the CEO some decades earlier, Apple Computer floundered until he returned.
What does this pattern repetition mean for the Christian? We can be sure that it is a principle that God has invested, and every person should take advantage of it. We seek that specialness he wants for us. Most situations will not be nearly as large as our references above, but there is something there, which if given attention, will give comfort and meaning to the individual life. Yearn for the best (meant for us) gifts, as Scripture notes we should – the Fruit of the Spirit as well. I have the potential of being more than simply a user of earth’s resources. God guides my way, if I am open to his management, to become the person that serves in a context without demurring when others resist the effort. It may be somewhat private, sometimes in the public eye, but always to be the person God meant for me to be. Under God, for the Christian, it is a creative humility, but with substance. Who could have predicted a tent-maker becoming one of the first ten most influential persons to have ever lived in the world – the Apostle Paul. What of the nurse of the poor/indigent in India – Mother Teresa? God uses it for attention. The whole scenario seems exciting to me. Even as I review my Page, in the tenth decade of my life, I feel like soaring above the circumstances (some good, some ill), and believe there is something not yet experienced that is a part of the forever. We were made for more than the world’s context, but charged to make the world experience so effective that it will count in the transitions, especially transitions that God has for those he admits to his realm. In that belief I want to take care of my old body so that I can function in mind, soul and spirit to the acceptance of God. All this belongs to righteousness in action – the work of God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020