Choosing Between Two Masters

This is Part 3 of Legacy Builders and the final part of the mini-series. We do have a choice whom to serve and what to love (or lust after) as we are beings with independent minds and the abilities to make our own decisions regardless of credit or detriment. However, our legacies stemming from those choices are what we are remembered for many years later.

We are people with a choice:  Whom shall we worship as God? The Lord? Our wallets? Our political party’s leaders, talking points, and their opinions? The pursuit of the opposite (or same, in some cases) sex and the potential heated moments of passion?

In November, most of us will be confronted with a choice for our next President of the United States. Choose the man who has spent his public life building a brand and promoting the wiles of mammon, or select the woman who was thrust into the limelight first as my home state’s First Lady before becoming the nation’s First Lady, U.S. Senator, and most recently Secretary of State. Of course, other candidates do exist on the ballot, but we generally follow the two major political parties agreeing in principle with one group a little more than the other. While we may be bombarded with calls about their records, integrity, and concerns with how the nation could be shaped through diversifying laws and/or a potential remake of the Supreme Court in either a more conservative or liberal direction, we still have the luxury of choice.

Not everyone has the privilege to choose – see prisoners, children on punishment, and the disenfranchised.

Elijah gave his people a similar ultimatum:  Choose the God of Ahab and be blessed, or follow Baal whom his wife Jezebel introduced to the Israelites upon their marriage. Ahab set up an altar and a temple to Baal giving cause to God’s arousal of anger in a manner unseen since the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. Moreover, Jezebel started killing off the Lord’s prophets and this led to God appointing Elijah to stop all of this foolishness.

It seemed like a common problem we have in society today:  We want it both ways even if one is to the detriment of our legacies and reputations. For example, we sometimes change our dependents on our payroll taxes to get a bigger paycheck because we think the government mismanages our money hence the pursuit of “life, liberty, and lower taxes” to keep more of our hard-earned money. Some were caught up in the Ashley Madison scandal thinking that they could have an extramarital affair and get away with it until that website was hacked; what do we make of the prominent names that were revealed?

How long can we waver between two opinions or two diametrically opposed ideas before God declares, “Enough already!”

My name is the Lord! I won't let idols or humans share my glory and praise.
Isaiah 42:8

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) August 20, 2016

This is the reason why God is such a jealous God. He is the only true living God – when was the last time we saw dollar bills or Buddha personified?

Elijah goes a step further in challenging the Israelites to see if Baal would answer them. The idol remained silent as God’s power came through as fire consumed the altar and the surrounding water proving that there is only one true God – idolatry is nothing but an unsustainable dead end that leaves the feeling of emptiness as opposed to one who travels through life with Him.

If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” – 1 Kings 18:21

Consider the following about those two masters, God and money:

·        The Lord says to seek first his kingdom and its righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

·        Money says hold on to what we have so we can feel secure.

·        God says we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7).

·        Money says we should do whatever it takes to get ahead because “the person with the most toys wins.” Apparently someone forgot the axiom from the No Fear t-shirts we all wore proudly around our high schools in the ‘90s – that person still dies.

·        Jesus said, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar’s [in taxes] and to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17).

·        Money says it is acceptable – almost expected – to cheat the government via embezzlement, using various loopholes to lower our tax bills because the feds are poor money managers and they are trying to promote Robin Hood-style socialism according to some people.

·        God calls for us to be generous.

·        Money calls us to be selfish and hoard all of our wealth.

We impact our legacies either as givers or as takers. By living our lives selflessly and sharing our blessings with our fellow man with love, we are remembered for our gentle Christ-like spirit versus the one of mammon.

Which master are you choosing, and how will it shape your legacy throughout the remainder of this lifetime and eternity?

He Was a Good Man

This is Part 2 of the Legacy Builders mini-series about the legacies we build for others to follow – or refrain from.

About sixteen years ago last week, my paternal grandfather Claude went Home to God after battling lung cancer and various ailments at the age of 83. From that week, I recall people stopping by the house and funeral home daily sharing their memories of him:  to me, my brother, and the rest of the cousins of our generation, he was just Granddaddy. One thing that kept coming up – particularly at his memorial service – was that he was remembered as a good man.

What did that mean to a college junior who simply assumed he would always be there?

Obviously, I had just lost a grandparent whom I was close to and being thrust into the role of family spokesperson hurt. It was a difficult week for all of us – and I still had to drive back and forth to Arkadelphia at least twice that week to take care of our work schedule while I was away. As my little white Mercury cruised up and down Interstate 30, I had to figure out what I wanted to say; how the front end would do with any combination of Tim, Trey, or Nicole running things during the evenings as I tended to family business; and what to wear. [Keep in mind this was in 2000. I had to find something to wear other than baseball caps, Abercrombie t-shirts, and cargo shorts for the first time since the last funeral I attended].

Claude Armstrong was not a wealthy or famous man in terms of dollars and branding his name, yet he was a good man. Anyone who stopped by (what used to be) the tan brick house on Markham Street across from Hendrix College would agree to the same statement.

Proverbs 22:1 teaches us a unique wisdom in the verse “A good name is more desirable than great riches”. While it is good to make a fistful of dollars and/or become well-known with a resume full of accolades and assorted superlatives, the thing that matters most from God’s perspective is how we live our lives. Are we visiting the sick and shut-in? Do others see that little light shining through in the midst of a dark world? Is giving a natural thing, or are we still takers only? What is the first thing that comes to mind when our names are spoken as descriptors? 

Losing a righteous man is no small thing and having that legacy of his works is what we all should be seeking for the glory of God. 

Transitions

We are all living in a period of transitions whether or not we wish to admit it. For example, my brother and sister-in-law and our parents recently celebrated their own wedding anniversaries; my daughter became a graduate from the High Risk Clinic for babies born prematurely at Arkansas Children’s Hospital; my best friend – and our own extended family of friends – celebrated the life of his grandmother; my own eventual move from working the graveyard shift to having to live and interact in a traditional daytime world of politicking coworkers, rush hour traffic, and paying for childcare; two of my neighbors recently graduated from high school to higher education and the real world with a third entering her senior year; and of course, there is the 2016 presidential election to become the next occupant of the Oval Office. Often these changes are met with initial resistance or a cautious reticence due to the nature of transitioning itself; it is over time (and conquering our fears of the unknown) that we are able to declare proudly of living through the experience and/or being on the right side of history.

We also wonder if we are making the right moves; after all, no one wants to jump from one frying pan to another.

Keep in mind the victors get to tell the story. In the United States of America, is has been skewed strongly to the Anglo-American majority views for the better part of the last four hundred years, and it is only recently that other stories are finally being presented in the limelight sometimes shattering the idyllic Rockwellian images of an America that rarely fit the matching narratives – ask any black, Hispanic or Latino, Native American, LGBTQ, female or Asian-American citizen where in his classic paintings we fit.

But all of our transitions are for naught; we also cannot freeze time nor return to a period where America was great for a few select people who benefited from the conflict, worry, and trouble in the larger world. Some of our parents, grandparents, and others need to be reminded that 1957 was not that great of a year for most of us:  True, it was the height of American automotive know-how and the year most interstate highways opened nationwide, but think for a second. The national tax rate for the top earners was an astounding 91 percent and minimum wage was an afterthought. Let’s not forget about those “pesky coloreds and their equality” in the attempts to overturn Jim Crow including school integration as well as ending separate but equal legislation in all facets of life as our parents, grandparents, and others view life from rose-tinted lenses of a privilege that never truly existed as if life was an episode from Leave It to Beaver or the Andy Griffith Show.

You grow, or you decline and eventually die. There is no in-between.

Jesus also explained to the disciples in Romans 8:39 to “get up, get out, and get something”. Well, not in those exact words (thanks, Outkast!), but the point is that neither the world nor we should stand still lest we become antiquities of ourselves. Transitions - both external and internal - are unavoidable as most southern state governments are learning once again as the shams in North Carolina used to disenfranchise minorities from voting are unconstitutional. Moreover, He says “Don’t be afraid,” because the changes are ultimately for our own good – and nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord.

As the world surrounding us transitions from one phase to another, I ask two questions:  1) Are we keeping up and staying relevant, and 2) Why are we afraid of actually doing what God has asked of us?