the most valuable of virtues

albert einstein once said, "the day you stop learning is the day you start dying."  one of the dangers of education is that you can sometimes get to the point to where you think you know more than you do.  that is why socrates said, "the greatest wisdom consists of knowing that you know nothing."  last week was one of those weeks when my glaring ignorance upon the subject of success was brought to light.  the times we learn most are in times of failure; at least that has been my experience, because it causes you to have to go back and reexamine yourself.

in the military, we have a system to determine promotions called promotion boards.  in these boards, a group of officers who have likely never seen you or met you in person have about two minutes to look at your record and give you a score which is used to determine whether you promote to the next rank.  in a breakdown of numbers, the odds are against you (the navy likes to use what i call fuzzy math and say that it's 70%, but in actuality, it's only about 25% of those eligible that get selected), so to not get promoted doesn't necessarily mean that you are not good at your job, but that others were seen as having something that you didn't, depending upon what the people in that particular board found valuable.  well, long story short, i was not selected for promotion this time, making it my second time to not get selected.  while there are a lot of people that end up in this same position, and the navy will continue to allow me to serve until i hit 20 years and can retire, being passed over for promotion for the second time was quite a blow.  the first time was a shock, but the second time really hurt and affected me in a way that i was not expecting.  the overwhelming emotion that kept creeping up was failure: to myself, to my family, to my career.  it was one thing to be passed over the first time, because you realize the numbers game and statistical chances, but the second time is more personal, and the prevalent, persistent thought was, "i thought i was at least good enough to not get passed over twice!"  this led to my learning experience, where i was taken to school on the virtues that we develop.  i read an article that jumped out at me in the days after the board results were released, and the article talked about how we all spend our lives developing virtues, and it broke those virtues down into "resume' virtues" and "eulogy virtues."  the short of it is resume' virtues are those virtues that we build in our professional lives that would be put down on a resume', and are meant to communicate the things we have accomplished in our lives that would be found valuable in the job market.  these are typically measurable, and are captured using numbers and concrete data.  the other type of virtues that we develop are eulogy virtues, and are things that we do that leave a lasting impact on the people we come in contact with.  these are typically not measurable in the physical sense, although sometimes can be partially captured with numbers, nevertheless have far reaching ripple effects.  these are the virtues that cause people to show up at your funeral and are spoken about when you are remembered.

as a CHRIST-follower, my experience of failing to select for promotion was the school teacher that caused me to realize that a more appropriate breakdown of these virtues would be temporal virtues versus kingdom virtues.  paul talks about this in his letter to timothy where he said that some deserted him, having loved this present life more than the next, in other words, their focus was on those temporal virtues.  in the u.s., we are so inundated with wealth and creature comforts that we have confused our affluence and influence with blessing, and have become the embodiment of the church in laodicaea, arrogant and thinking we are in need of nothing.  how many people do you know that attribute their financial or positional gain to God's blessing?  you've probably heard them, "God blessed me with this nice house," or "God has seen fit to bless him/her with a job position," or any other sort of temporal affluence that we can attribute to God.  i have seen a number of cars that say "blessed" on the tag, but do you know what i noticed?  it's never a piece of junk car; on the contrary, it's always a really nice car.  people would probably call it an oxymoron to see an 84 mercury sable, with rust all over it, mismatched rims and tires, blowing smoke out the tailpipe, and a tag that says "blessed!"  our attitude almost becomes one of entitlement, "well, i have done x, y, and z, so God should bless me with nice stuff."  and that is because we have confused affluence and influence with blessing, which is antithetical to what Scripture teaches.  satan even offered both of these to CHRIST in his temptations to Him, which CHRIST rejected.  it is not a coincidence, that it is also what the real experience of humanity teaches.  some of the most miserable people are the most wealthy, and some of the happiest people i have met have been the poorest.  in reality, most will tell you that wealth and position only bring more burdens than blessing.  because of this misnomer of equating affluence and influence with blessing, we end up placing priority and importance upon the temporal to the neglect of the eternal, and then when we find ourselves suffering loss in the temporal, we begin to wrongly think that God must be punishing us for taking away our "blessings."  the disciples even thought like this, as is evident when they asked Jesus if the blind man was born blind because of the parents' sin, and even more so when they were defeated on the road to emmaus when Jesus didn't turn out to be the conquering king they expected Him to be. 

that being said, it is not wrong to work hard to achieve success in the temporal realm, just so long as that is not your priority.  for me, personally, the promotion was not as much about the rank increase, or even the pay increase, because those things are not that important to me; they are mere tools to use.  it was more about recognition for the hard work and accomplishments i've achieved, as well as the sacrifices made to get to where i am, and when it didn't happen, it was as if those things didn't mean anything.  that was because the focus for me was on the temporal, the praise of men, when it should have been on the eternal.  in reality, the immeasurable impacts to His kingdom that God has allowed me to be a part of were not affected.  i began to realize that God did not call me to be a navy chaplain to become a commander or captain, or even to be a great staff officer.  he called me to minister to the sailors and marines and coast guardsmen who were in need of the love of CHRIST, and to share that love, and the gospel that embodies that love, to those who were in need of a Saviour.  you know what i realized?  that sailor who i spent time with and shared CHRIST's love with is still a CHRIST-follower today because of His call to this ministry.  that marine who was suicidal is still alive today because of His call to this ministry.  the spouse that lost her husband was able to get connected to other gold star spouses because of His call to this ministry.  there are brand new chaplains with fresh fervor and preparedness ministering to people because of His call to this ministry.  i could write a book with all of the people that God has put in my path that i've been blessed to be able to share His love with, and that is a blessing that will not go away.  the true meaning of blessings from God are those treasures in heaven that do not rot, and rust does not destroy, and the thief can never steal.

my encouragement to you, and my request for your prayer for me, is that we never lose sight of what virtues are the important ones to develop, and that we never choose to chase the temporal in neglect of the eternal.  the eternal destinies of people who are precious to Him are on the line, and you may be the one person God is preparing to minister to one of the "least of these," and you can then let your affluence and influence be converted into a blessing when you choose to be a good and faithful steward of what God has allowed you to have, and use it to share CHRIST's love with all of those in this world that desperately need it.  remember, satan would have you defeated in order to remove the threat to his kingdom, and he uses the temporal to do that, but CHRIST would would have you victorious in His name, and to be the church, and His hands and feet.  CHRIST said that he who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven, so the goal now is to look forward, and not dwell on the past, but build those kingdom virtues to secure more victories for the kingdom!