My family has a friend who we’ll call Dr. Drent. He was an ear, nose, & throat doctor. He happened to be my best friend’s dad as a kid, but that’s not important. What is important is that he was cheated out of a ton of money because someone stole his invention.
Dr. Drent had come up with an idea – some invention. I don’t remember the details. But on a flight home from a conference, Dr. Drent struck up a friendly conversation with the fellow next to him. I don’t know his name. All I know is that the man on the flight was also an ENT doctor who, as I understand it, was pretending not to be one. As a matter of polite chatter, Dr. Drent told this fellow about his idea for an invention.
The flight landed. They went their separate ways. All was well… that is, until Dr. Drent some months later saw that someone else had invented, patented, and produced the very same invention he had in mind. Who should it be, but the fellow from the plane?
I don’t know what the moral of the story is here for you. I hope it’s not “steal people’s ideas.” But the moral of the story is, for me, your ideas need to be acted upon in order for them to become real. That is also the point that Paul makes at the top of the 4th Chapter of 1 Thessalonians.
He writes: “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” (1 Thess 4.1-2)
Paul goes on to talk about vitally important areas of human life: sexual morality, self-control, brotherhood. He really pulls no punches. He jumps right into the parts of our lives that, at least in my experience, we don’t really want someone talking too directly about. But Paul is unflinching in his recognition of the truth that even the best of ideas need, on some level, some human decision and determination to make them fully real.
At Christ School, we have a lot of great ideas. We talk about developing men of good character. We talk about brotherhood. We talk about the Good Life. I would submit to you that what we say about these important things is almost always true, often inspired, and routinely profound. But there come moments when the talking comes to an end and the thinking expires. It is then that we must decide to as Paul says, “to walk and to please God.”
Of course, we don’t do this alone. We are funded by these ideas of deep truth and towering inspiration. But we are also kept afloat by the Spirit of the God who became human in Jesus Christ – who eventually decided to make His good ideas a real human life of His own. It is more than good ideas that we have to go off of if we seek a Good Life. It is the Good Life of God’s own Self.
Until tomorrow, H