Put it to use

He was a very well known preacher in his day. In the 1950's he was a special guest at lots of preaching missions. I know he was always a special preacher in the East Tennessee yearly preaching mission in Johnson City, Tenn. His name was Charles Allen, and he was the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas for ages. He proved to me that the Methodist do not always move their ministers every four years.

He once told me that when he found a great story or an illustration, it did not matter what he was preaching he was going to use that story the very next Sunday. He did not want anyone else to use it before he did, and he knew that even great stories lose their power when they are no longer timely.

He told a story about a man in his congregation who made buckets of money. He was super successful in his business and he did some great financial planning. It was a good thing because the man died very young. The business man had set up a trust fund for his son that said that the son would get a regular income, a living wage, as long as he was in college.  So the son spent 48 years in college, earned 11 degrees and did absolutely nothing with any of his education.

It is a painful story because I think it reminds us that all of us have been left incredible resources and opportunities, and the question that has to haunt us all is what have we done with it. What kind of contribution have we made to the betterment of our community, our state, our world with what we have received?  48 years of college for one man is amazing, but 500 years of accumulated wisdom is available to all of us and how have we made use of it?

First Citizens Bank has a commercial that suggests the same thing, "Money isn't everything, but so much depends on what you do with it."  Having the gifts, having the abundance and advantages that we have as citizens of this country, the question is still what have we done with it?  How have we helped the other countries in the world?