March 23, 2010
Luke 14
Pastor John Edwards
Life must be understood backwards, but…it must be lived forward.
The older I get, I’ve found myself living that quote from Soren Kierkegaard. Maybe that’s why I was transported in my heart and mind to the Pharisee’s house, as recorded in Luke 14. Like others around the meal table, I’m watching carefully and listening intently as Jesus’ parable identifies honor-seeking guests at a wedding feast with a heart condition called pride.
It’s a painful-yet-valuable reminder of a certain Friday morning when, one by one, each of the 11 members of WSOC Radio’s news and sports staff met with the station’s general manager and program director. One of them was a recent college graduate, full of himself as a broadcast journalist in his hometown, who learned during the brief conversation that the all-news station’s format would change to “adult standards” music at midnight on Sunday. His (my) services were needed no longer.
It wasn’t clear at the time, but “20/20 hindsight” makes me grateful for that moment. It’s been nearly three decades ago, yet remains a powerful character-building lesson that Jesus described in Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
These days, it must still be an intentional pursuit for less of me…and more of Him. Skirmishes of pride vs. humility take place multiple times each day, yet the battle’s worth fighting “…because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
No “seat of honor” here can compare with a seat at the “Wedding Supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:6-9). So…let’s live forward!
The scripture verse that’s most compelling in Pastor John’s life is I Corinthians 4:2 – “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”
