When Laughing, Keep Your Balance (Part I)

This lesson was a good lesson for those of us who are growing older. Guess what. That’s every one of us. We have so much more to offer than we know. If we could see our own full potential, it would blow our minds. Charles Swindoll used an article from back in 1967 called “Advice to a (Bored) Young Man”

“Many people reading this page are doing so with the aid of bifocals. Inventor? B. Franklin, age 79.
The presses that printed this page were powered by electricity. One of the first harnessers? B. Franklin, age 40,
Some are reading this on the campus of one of the Ivy League universities. Founder? B. Franklin, age 45.
Some got heir copy through the U.S. Mail. Its father? B. Franklin, age 31.
Now, think fire. Who started the first fire department, invented the lightning rod, designed a heating stove still in use today? B. Franklin, ages 31,43,36.
Wit. Conversationalist. Economist. Philosopher. Diplomat. Printer. Publisher. Linguist (spoke and wrote five languages). Advocate of paratroopers (from balloons) a century before the airplane was invented. All this until age 84.
And he had exactly two years of formal schooling. It’s a good bet that you already had more sheer knowledge than Franklin had when he was your age.
Perhaps you think there’s no use trying to think of anything new, that everything’s been done. Wrong. The simple, agrarian America of Franklin’s day didn’t begin to need the answers we need today.
Go do something about it.”

Examples like Ben Franklin are great. They can inspire us. However, they can also frustrate us. Think of the father who is without a job on the job hunt trying to support his family; stuck between panic and pressure. What about the mother at home with five children under the age of five who barely finds the time to get dressed before noon. Some of us are so busy, we do good to read about great examples, much less go try to be one ourselves. Mark Twain, humorist, wrote, “ Few things are harder to put up with than that annoyance of a good example.”

Okay, so what options are we faced with when confronted with these magnanimous examples. Charles Swindoll gave us three options. (1) we can fake it; (2) we can hurry the process; and (3) we can strive harder.

Faking it

When faced with the desire to be a great example or live up to the same type of example in our lives, instead of working toward the goal of becoming, we fake it. The example of Milli Vanilli back in 1990 who shocked the entertainment world with their scandal when it was discovered that they were not actually singing the songs, but lip-syncing them, caught many off guard. They had “faked” the expertise and talent to obtain a goal they had set for themselves. We sometimes learn all the right words to say and the prescribed behavior and fake our way though something without putting in the required effort and time. All to reach a prescribed goal or level. This will never get you anywhere.

Hurry the Process

Much like faking it, we as a microwave society, don’t feel we can put in the time and effort it requires to obtain our prize. We want it now and we want it quick. We don’t want to pay the price, stand in line, follow the prescribed course… Just give it to me NOW!

Strive Harder

Trying to obtain the prize when faced with such great examples, can cause us to work harder. While hard work in itself is not wrong. It is when we do nothing but live our lives under striving 24/7 that it becomes futile.

Swindoll poses the question: “I ask you, is that the Christian life? If the answer is not faking it and if it is not hurrying thing, is it striving hard for it? You want to live the rest of your life striving to please Him in all that you do? Some who are painfully honest will admit, ‘I’m doing my best. I’m trying. But I’m exhausted.’ Surely that’s not God’s plan.”

The Greatest Example

While Ben Franklin is an awesome example in what he accomplished during his lifetime, he was far from the best. What was true about Franklin is not true of our best example – Jesus Christ. While other great examples may inspire, they cannot enable. They can motivate, but they have no power to change us. Christ is the only example that can do all of it. He can inspire you to greatness and then He give you His power to accomplish it. Christ not only lived the exemplary life, He also made it possible for us to live the same kind of life. He gave us the pattern “without” and at the same time provided the power to do it “within”. When we follow Christ’s example, we are able to Laugh Again. We don’t have to fake it, rush it, or strive for it. If He controls our minds, He gives us the right attitude to bring about the right actions.