men
A for-men-only feature dealing with basic Christianity/ by Lloyd Hamill
A man & his birthday
I guess New Year’s is the traditional time when we’re supposed to take a mental inventory . . . and perhaps tick off a few resolutions for the com ing months. For me, however, I turn to such things more readily on my birthday. I don’t know why un less a birthday is a little more personal than a national holiday. I suppose it doesn’t matter whether we’re nine or 3 5 or 83 — no matter what the age, our birthday is a time of reckoning. W e ’ve used up another year of whatever our alloted days are. And to some of us this can be a pretty fright ening thing. It can well cause a mild panic deep inside. The last year has gone by with the speed akin to an earth-circling satellite. Maybe we’ve made some big strides ahead. Maybe business has been booming. Or maybe the progress of the past year has been dismally little. In any event we know the year is gone. And we’re one year older. W e have exactly one year less to accom plish our life’s mission. This thought has made many a man conclude the old rat race just isn’t worth it. Why tie yourself down to a job day-in and day-out that you don’t like? Why audit books and plow fields and design missiles when life is short and you really want to do something else? Why not chuck it all and like the famous French artist Paul Gauguin sail off to the South Pacific and paint naked native girls? Why not indeed? Frankly I’ve entertained such ideas myself. Not paint native girls because I couldn’t do them justice. But I might just wander off to Arizona to photograph giant saguaros against flaming sun sets and to fish for fat trout in Oak Creek Can yon and to write whole days without a single interruption from a noisy office telephone. Well,
that’s my dream. I don’t know about yours but you’ve got one. And it’s good to always have a dream for the future. But what about the hard fact of the present? I’ve been thinking about it. Today’s my birthday. And while I’ve been thinking I’ve rediscov ered an absolute fact as far as my life is concerned. It is this: every single thing about my life hinges on my relationship to God. A t first glance it may be a little hard to pic ture how all-engulfing this is. Actually it’s rather staggering. For the man who commits his life to God through vital faith in Jesus Christ there is a whole new dimension to living. W e ’re no longer battling life on our transient human strength. W e never find ourself at the end of our rope because God has made certain promises that as sure us — with absolute certainty — o f His help in our times of need. This is important. When our daily routine has become almost unbearably boring then we need something more than a dream. W e need help — concrete, unbending help. The alternative of coming to God is somehow rather dreary at best. To overcome our sense of boredom and frustration at the routine and the passing years we redouble our efforts to put mean ing into life. W e work harder, we play harder. And God has something to say about our all-out effort: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?*’ That’s a good question. It’s a question we can’t very well shove aside. Read it again. Maybe the thing you’re giving in exchange for your soul really isn’t worth it after all.
The King's Business/March 1958
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