CHECKS YOU CAN'T CASH

CHECKS YOU CAN’T CASH

It has been reported that during the prime of Muhammad Ali’s boxing career, a close friend grew tired of his continual claims that he was the greatest.  Knowing that Ali never played golf, his friend casually inquired of him, “So how are you at golf?”  Ali responded with an expected and humorous confidence: “I’m the best!  I just haven’t played yet.”

Point to ponder: ‘Does your mouth write checks your life can’t cash?’

Last night, I read an interesting quotation by Simon Cowell, formerly of American Idol fame.  He said “I could sit back and get someone to spin my achievements, I suppose, but when I see others do it, I always think, ‘Why are you telling me how successful you are?’  I am always suspicious of those kinds of boasts.”  Me too, Mr. Cowell; me too.

There is a synonym for boasting, one which is often employed in our day by those who relish self-exaltation.  It is called “promotion.”  To be candid, many of us (in the guise of promoting our personal achievements or ministries) resort to daily dispatches of unchecked and unabashed boasting.  It makes me scratch my head and wonder: ‘Where is our humility?’  Have we so soon forgotten Solomon’s sage advice?  “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

My father, the late Bishop Joseph Edison Bass, Sr., often posed a question specifically designed to make us aware of the need for genuine humility.  Dad asked all of us, “What do you have that you did not receive?”  His question was a condensed paraphrase of the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Church of Corinth: “For who makes you differ from another?  And what do you have that you did not receive?  Now if you indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (I Corinthians 4:7) 

Paul expanded on this ethical concept in his letter to the Church of Rome: “Where is boasting then?  It is excluded.  By what law?  Of works?  No, by the law of faith.” (Romans 3:27)  Although he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews,” Paul modestly concludes that “I will rather boast in my infirmities [as opposed to my accomplishments] that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (Philippians 3:5 and II Corinthians 12:9)  And to the Church of Galatia, Paul wrote, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

Here’s the thing.  Boasting is not only framed in unbridled arrogance; it is also the personification of ignorance.  Why?  Because any degree of self-exaltation overlooks the undeniable fact that you and I “are bought with a price.”  So I must…you must…“glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians 6:20)  May I be transparent?  Whenever I am tempted to expand my own ego and to start tripping, I hear the whispered voice of a very wise father: “What do you have that you did not receive?”      

James, the brother of Jesus, did not mince words about this egocentric condition: “All such boasting is evil,” he wrote. (James 4:16)  David’s testimony is confirmation: “My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.” (Psalm 34:2)  In other words, humility heals; arrogance divides and destroys.

Please allow me to pose today’s question once more: ‘Does your mouth write checks your life can’t cash?’  The implications of this interrogative are completely clear.  Even though we might accomplish great and marvelous things, it is OUR GOD who is the giver of “every good and every perfect gift.”  So whatever we ARE…whatever we DO…we must humbly recognize that it comes “from ABOVE…from the FATHER OF LIGHTS, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)  Unquestionably, whatever exceptional values are inscribed on our life checks, every one of them has been sponsored, signed and sealed by the Bank of Heaven.  So we dare not trip.  Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed!