Tuesday, September 9, 2003
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's
heart, who has made him known.
Woody Allen, that witty man who has produced so many classic films, flunked Motion Picture
Production at the City College of New York. Leon Uris, writer of one of the most popular novels of
this century, EXODUS, failed English three times in high school. Everyone who makes a major
contribution to life knows what it is to have failures. Indeed, those early failures can be a major
contributor to later successes.
There are times in our lives when we have turned away from God. Are we learning from our
failures to be close to God?
(John 1.18
NRSV)
George Reedy was President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary. It was Reedy who convinced
Johnson he should never have assistants who were under forty years of age and who hadn't
suffered any major disappointment in life. Without that maturity and without that disappointment,
Reedy felt such people thrust into these positions of power would come to think of themselves
as little tin gods. That is true. Too much early success in life has a tendency to spoil us. We
begin to think of ourselves as clever. We begin to rely on our ability rather than our hard work.
Worse yet, we begin to rely on ourselves rather than on God. Everyone who makes a major
contribution to life knows what it is to have failures.
God of peace, help me to learn from my selfish and sinful moments, so that I can relish the
closeness I have with you. Amen.
