11-10-02 Sunday Journal

Reading the parable of the talents, I was struck by how ridiculous our Superman complex is - our feeling that we must leap tall buildings to be worthy.

Where do we get this pervasive feeling of unworthiness? This feeling that we cannot be acceptable in God's sight without some heroic achievement or sacrifice?

Surely you have had the feeling when talking to a wonderful friend who keeps putting himself/herself down, "God, if only I could reach inside their heart and pull out the roots of this sick and silly disease of unworthiness."

Weirdly, it's usually some of the best human beings we know who are afflicted with it. People who quietly go about their lives doing good, being kind, being helpful, working every day, and loving their families and friends. Sometimes they even love their enemies, too.

There are five words in Jesus' parable of the talents that should give us some perspective on how much good we need to do to be approved and rewarded by Him. With each person who used their talents well He said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been FAITHFUL OVER A FEW THINGS. I will make you ruler over many things."

Let us allow our hearts to become a big sponge and soak up those words, "Faithful over a few things."

What keeps the kingdom of God in our midst (yes, Jesus said it is in our midst) are little people doing little good things day after day. Seldom are we in a position to do some overwhelming act that will earn us the Nobel Prize or put our smiling faces on the front page of the newspaper.

I was in politics for 16 years and helped build trade centers, industrial parks, an aquarium, a Riverwalk and all kinds of things you can touch with your hands and look at and admire. But I don't do those things any more. Now I take my guitar into nursing homes and try to put a smile on faces twisted with pain. Is that less important?

Recently I spoke to a luncheon group of seniors and several of them urged me to run again. I said, "What I am doing here today, is just as important as anything I have ever done."

A little Goldfinch flew into my window and knocked itself out. I brought it in from the snow and worked on it until it regained consciousness. Is that less important?

No. God looks upon the heart. Every tiny act you do out of love keeps the kingdom of God in our midst.

Quit beating up on yourself. God doesn't want you hurt any more than He wants you to hurt others. Forget being Superman and just be you -- a kind and loving you right there where God has placed you. There is a big reason you are there and it may be to do little things. Jesus said a good and faithful servant is "faithful over a few things."

In my first book, "Things That Really Matter," I was given this to write:

Today
If you say
Just one healing word
To a battered soul
You may uplift the life of man
More than a skilled surgeon
For it's the heart of the world
That needs healing.

-30-

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