It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [28]
You won’t be offered a throne, but you might be offered a corner office, a scholarship, an award, a new contract, a pay raise.You won’t be given a kingdom to oversee, but you might be given a home or employees or students or money or resources. You will, to one degree or another, succeed.
And when you do, you might be tempted to forget who helped you do so. Success sabotages the memories of the successful. Kings of the mountain forget who carried them up the trail.
The flea did. An old fable tells of an elephant lumbering across a wooden bridge suspended over a ravine. As the big animal crossed over the worn-out structure, it creaked and groaned under the elephant’s weight. When he reached the other side, a flea that had nestled itself in the elephant’s ear proclaimed, “Boy, did we shake that bridge!”2
The flea had done nothing! The elephant had done all the work.
SUCCESS SABOTAGES
THE MEMORIES OF THE
SUCCESSFUL. KINGS OF
THE MOUNTAIN FORGET
WHO CARRIED THEM
UP THE TRAIL.
What a fleabrained declaration! But don’t we do the same? The man who begged for help in medical school ten years ago is too busy to worship today. Back when the family struggled to make ends meet, they leaned on God for daily bread. Now that there is an extra car in the garage and a jingle in the pocket, they haven’t spoken to him in a while. In the early days of the church, the founding members spent hours in prayer.Today the church is large, well attended, well funded.Who needs to pray?
Success begets amnesia. Doesn’t have to, however. God offers spiritual ginseng to help your memory. His prescription is simply “Know the purpose of success.” Why did God help you succeed? So you can make him known.
David Robinson knows this. Speaking of someone who God made good, this seven-foot-tall basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs was good. For fourteen seasons he dominated the league: MVP, All-Star, two championship rings, two Olympic gold medals. But it was his character that caught the attention of the public. These words appeared in the Washington Times the day after Robinson’s departing championship victory.
Robinson showed that a player did not have to be cheap or dirty to be effective. He did not have to clutter his body with tattoos or litter the NBA cities with illegitimate children. Robinson never felt a need to bring attention to himself, to shimmy after a good play or point to the crowd, as if to say,“Look at me. Aren’t I something special?”
The good guys won. Robinson won. Decency won. We all won.3
Minutes after hoisting the trophy overhead, David was interviewed by a national network. “People in San Antonio know what I’m going to say,” he told the reporter. And we did. We did because we had heard him say it and seen him live it for so long.“All the glory goes to God,” he announced.
Three thousand years ago another David declared the same truth.“Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength” (1 Chronicles 29:12 NLT).
“They did not conquer the land with their swords; it was not their own strength that gave them victory. It was by your mighty power that they succeeded; it was because you favored them and smiled on them” (Psalm 44:3 NLT).
I know a frog who needed those verses. He had a real problem. His home pond was drying up. If he didn’t find water soon, he would do the same. Word reached him of a vibrant stream over the adjacent hill. If only he could live there. But how could he? The short legs of a frog were not made for long journeys.
IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM—
HIS PRESENT AND
FUTURE GLORY.
But then he had an idea. Convincing two birds to carry either end of a stick, he bit the center and held on as they flew. As they winged toward the new water, his jaws clamped tightly. It was quite a sight!Two birds, one stick, and a frog in the middle. Down below, a cow in a pasture saw them passing overhead. Impressed, he wondered aloud, “Now who came up with that