Practical Devotion

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:23)

It was a dream come true, or was it?

Howard Hughes, the reclusive billionaire, died in April, 1976. Three weeks after his death, a remarkable document was found at the headquarters of the Mormons in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The remarkable document was purportedly a handwritten will by Hughes claiming to have been written in 1968.

There were a number of oddities in this will, but none more so than the eighth distribution of wealth:

“Eighth: one-sixteenth to go to Melvin DuMar of Gabbs, Nevada.”

Who in the world is Melvin Dumar, and why was Howard Hughes giving him one-sixteenth of his vast fortune? Well, here is the story.

According to Dumar, he was working one night at a service station in Willard, Utah. It was there that he spotted a bedraggled man lying on the side of U.S. highway 95.

The man asked Dumar to take him to The Sands hotel in Vegas, which he did.

Toward the end of the encounter, this stranger made a startling revelation—he was Howard Hughes.

So, did Dumar really meet Howard Hughes along the side of the road, and because of that generosity, Hughes placed him in his will?

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10 NIV)

You don't know his name, but you know the name of the man he is compared with.

In his youth, Andre Mathieu was called the “Canadian Mozart.”

At the age of eleven, Mathieu was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, playing his own original compositions. Not bad.

Even better, at the age of 13, Mathieu beat out a young Leonard Bernstein in a composition contest. (Bernstein went on to do fairly well for himself!)

But best yet, when famed composer Rachmaninov heard him play, he called him a genius.

So, with such a promising beginning, why haven't we all heard of Mathieu? Well, after his impressive start things took a turn for the worst.

The turn began during a trip to Paris as a late teenager. Mathieu had gone to study piano and composition, but returned home disappointed and disillusioned. Soon, he would turn to alcohol to fill up his emotional wounds...and the promising young man was on the road to missing his potential.

Mathieu still wrote a number of impressive works, however his impact was never what it could have been. And, his alcoholism would eventually lead to his early death at the age of 39.

The fatal flaw, everyone has one.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” (Revelation 22:1-3)

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a masterpiece.

As you probably know, it is the story of Frodo Baggins, and his dear friend Samwise, placed in the center of a quest of epic proportions.

The entire fate of Middle-Earth depends upon them destroying the ring of power in the fires of Mordor. Of course, the fires of Mordor lie within the realm of the most dominant force of evil imaginable, Lord Sauron.

Obviously, the odds of their success are quite poor.

The Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece not just of literary quality, but in my opinion, for another reason as well. It captures the essence of life and the spiritual battle of good verses evil better than any work I've ever read.

Recently, I found some remarks from Tolkien on the idea of the fairy tale, and it explains, I think, the particular insight which allowed him to create such an epic work.

“(The fairy tale) does not deny the existence of...sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat..., giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, as poignant as grief.

It is the mark of the good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the 'turn' comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art.”

There it is. The secret to the brilliance behind The Lord of the Rings. It is a fairy-tale that says, “in the end good wins,” without denying the existence of sorrow and failure.

Does this sound familiar? It should.

Tommorrow we return to our normal devotional format, but today I continue the serial look at Chapter 13, "Grace Your Relationships," from my book Practical Grace:

This is the truth we so desperately need to get a hold of in our relationships. We need to stop being like the unmerciful servant and start being like the generous landowner. God has shown us incomparable grace, so can't we do a bit of the same for others? Can't we stop keeping score? Let's assume that everything on your list of complaints about someone is true. You are more mature. They are less mature. Okay, so what? Remember, in reality, it is only a matter of degree. By God's standard of maturity are you really that impressive? No, you're not. The opportunity you've been given in every one of your relationships is to imitate for others what God has done for you. You can give them what they don't deserve. You can tear up the list. And this includes accepting the fact that all relationships are uneven. One side requires more patience. One side requires more forgiveness. One side requires more empathy. And maybe that one side is all their side. That's grace.

Our relationship with Jesus is the most one-sided in history. We do the sinning; He did the dying. And He isn't grumbling about the imbalance. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2 NIV) Jesus saw the cross, with all of its pain and suffering, as a joy. It was a wonderful opportunity; the chance to give grace. And we have the same opportunity. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:23) We can choose to be kind and compassionate, for grace isn't worried about fair. Or, on second thought, is it?