From Good to Great to Gone (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains.

Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

—Percy Bysshe Shelley (a selection from his poem, Ozymandias)

We all know this ... but it helps to be reminded from time to time: nothing in this life lasts forever. Even the mighty fall. Whether it’s a corporation, a political leader, or a superstar, there comes a day when they are no longer on the top of the heap.

Jim Collins and partners started tracking the life cycles of corporations with their groundbreaking bestseller, "Built to Last." There they investigated why some companies (e.g. Disney or Procter & Gamble) continued at the top of their respective fields decade after decade, while comparable others came and went. They followed this with a second bestseller, "Good to Great." That sought to know why some companies (e.g. Gillette or Walgreens) made that leap from OK to greatness while others did not. Finally, it seemed only appropriate they should turn their searchlight on "How the Mighty Fall."

Apparently, like mountain climbing, there are only a few ways to the top, but you can fall all sorts of ways. Their central discovery? A "company can indeed look like the picture of health on the outside yet already be in decline, dangerously on the cusp of a huge fall..."

In other words, the seeds of our destruction are usually sown long before the harvest. If only there were some way to see that fall coming ...

Collins and crew found there are some usual stages through which the mighty descend on their way to the bottom; stages that, if brought to their attention, might allow them to reverse course before they are too far gone. The first three are particularly instructive:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril

These three and others are all present in the nations that surrounded Israel in the Old Testament years, constantly conspiring to bring about its downfall. But, God sent them warnings. Through the Psalmist and others, God showed them their hubris, their unbridled appetite, and the risks they were incurring by conspiring against His will.

This week's scriptures, especially Psalm 2, tell of God's sovereignty and the authority He has conferred on His Anointed One (Jesus). God makes it clear, to the nations and to us: He is the authority and that He has anointed His chosen.

Kings, rulers, judges, and everyone else must recognize both His sovereignty and His anointed. Collins and crew also discovered how corporations can avoid an early decline. There are ways to bring wisdom into the equation. Likewise, everyone, both mighty and otherwise, must be wise in recognizing God’s sovereignty over our lives.

The alternative is to discover, most personally, how the mighty fall.

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Click for PHOTO (plus all the words to Ozymandias and a funny take by humorist Ogden Nash). Or, Copy and Paste: https://muddlet.wordpress.com/2018/01/07/ozymandias-ogdeniasis/

A different version of this reflection, How the Mighty Fall, appeared in 2014.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Transfiguration Sunday (February 23, 2020)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=22

Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9

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Join us Friday morning, if you can. As usual, we will meet at Our Breakfast Place (the Waco "Egg and I") at 8:00 to chew on and digest some scripture while chowing down on some great food.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Another Rocket, Man (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

He knew what he wanted to be ... and it wasn’t this.

At the beginning of Robert Heinlein’s science fiction novel, Starman Jones, young Max lived on a small farm in the Ozarks with his stepmother. Once a week, after finishing his chores, he made his way down the hill a bit where he lay back and waited. Soon, he heard the roar and saw the bright flame that lifted the weekly Moon Shuttle off the Earth and on its way to space. The light of that rocket flame was a beacon to Max Jones; the roar, a siren’s song. They called to something deep within him, a great desire unfulfilled by his daily life.

But wanting something is not the same as achieving it.

Legend has it that NASA scientists considered two different methods of moving a rocket from the Earth to outer space:
Method 1 - "constant acceleration" meant a slow launch, increasing the speed a little more each second until breakthrough velocity was achieved. It would be easy on the Astronauts, but lacked the certainty of the other method. Plus, and this is key, constant acceleration was much slower to achieve Earth orbit.
Method 2 - “quick thrust" or “intense acceleration” meant a faster launch. This would be harder on the Astronauts. They would be subjected to several gravities of force "pressing" on them. This high “g-force” could, if endured too long, injure or kill them.

NASA chose Method 2. That excessive G-force the Astronauts would have to endure during takeoff was one of the reasons our astronauts needed to possess the "right stuff," a collection of physical and mental attributes essential to their success. This exclusivity was necessary. Almost anyone could handle the takeoff using the gentler "constant acceleration" method. Only a few could handle the intensity of the other.

And that brings us to this week’s 1st Corinthians passage. The more influential Corinthians who were part of that church had the idea that their way was the only way to be a follower of Jesus; that only those with the "right stuff" (like them) could do it. Paul's letter to the church confronts them with the truth: they’re not the spiritually gifted Pneumatikoi ("Spirit People") they imagined themselves to be, far from it.

They were so far from maturity, they were more like babies, only able to stomach the "milk" of Paul’s teachings. Their superiority complex and exclusivity were tearing apart the church at Corinth. Paul needed to remind them: God is the one who "gives the growth."

Spiritual maturity comes about when we submit to the shaping of our creator; not just because we say it’s so. Max Jones didn’t become Starman Jones just by desiring it. The transformation from farmer to Starman took time. He went through a process, experienced several life challenges. These, eventually, shaped him for the job.

We must have faith that God has invested each of us with sufficient "right stuff" for our respective spiritual journeys. God will honor our constancy with a spiritual growth pace and trajectory that is right.

God knows which launch method is best for each of us.

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PHOTO: https://www.amazon.com/Starman-Jones/dp/B001EPO4XO

A different version of this reflection appeared in 2014 as Constant Acceleration.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 16, 2020)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=18

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37

Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We continue to meet at 8:00 at Our Breakfast Place (same location as the Waco Egg and I restaurant). The scriptures and the fellowship are great. We eat the same kinds of stuff as the astronauts ... just not as paste in tubes.

No excessive G-force will be applied.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

SpaceX Rockets and Worshipping God (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

I clearly remember the first time I heard —and vibrated to— a SpaceX rocket engine test. Loud understates the experience.

Those rocket engine tests are fairly common for those of us living near the small, central Texas town of McGregor. SpaceX has a very active operation there. The deep-throated roar of those engines has been known to shake pictures off walls, objects off shelves, and nappers off couches.

The first time it happened, there was one question on the mind of every person: What is happening?! But, after learning the answer, people began to relax a bit. Oh, the roar continued off and on, but nothing actually seemed to be happening. After a bit, we stopped thinking of it as "emergency!" Soon, we downgraded it to "just a lot of noise." Oh, it was still loud, and it still had everybody's house shaking. But nothing bad followed all that noise; nothing momentous occurred.

The excitement had waned.

We settled down.

We got used to it.

That's the situation confronted by the Prophet Isaiah in this week's scriptures. God had been active in the lives of the Jewish people for centuries. God had sometimes presented as a giant pillar of fire, sometimes as a great whirlwind (think: tornado or hurricane), sometimes appearing with such a roar that ordinary people were afraid to approach.

God could be blindingly bright, thunderously loud.

Eventually, though, people came to take God for granted. Oh, they still did the religious things. They fasted, made sacrifices, participated in worship. And, in their minds, that was enough.

But, in truth, they had moved past the excitement of following God's commandments for living. They quarreled and fought with each other. They let the hungry go hungry. They denied justice to those who were falsely imprisoned. They were supposed to bring the homeless into their own homes, to free the oppressed, and to be caring for their relatives ... but, no. No time for any of that stuff; too busy being busy.

And all the time wondering where God had gotten to.

Because they no longer did as God asked, God told Isaiah to "Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion...." Apparently, nothing else was going to get their attention.

They could no longer hear the roar, no longer see the light.

What about us?
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A version of this reflection appeared in February 2017 as God and SpaceX.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 9, 2019)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=17

Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
Psalm 112:1-9 (10)
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
Matthew 5:13-20
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As we continue to move through the Epiphany season, I hope you can join us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. Fat Tuesday will be upon us before you know it, and then Ash Wednesday and Lent. Next thing you know, we'll be celebrating Easter.

Take some time to fellowship with us at Our Breakfast Place (formerly called the "Egg and I" restaurant). We start at 8:00 and mosey along around 9:00. We eat, we laugh, we pray, and we spend some quality time in God's word ... hearing the roar ... seeing the light.

Blessings,
Steve