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The Balanced Perspective of a Wise Man |
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Agur, son of Jakeh, was a wise man.His wisdom and balanced perception is clearly revealed in his simple prayer to God: ‘Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die:
(Proverbs 30:7-9) It seems clear that Agur was a man who sought after truth.He observed nature, and it made him ask questions about life’s values and principles.He also wanted to be someone who expressed and lived the truth. He recognised the dangers of extremes and the need for balance.Unlike so many today, caught up in corporate and personal greed - including those who greedily use the Gospel for personal gain - Agur recognised the subtle danger of too much wealth leading to further greed and self-glorification.When this occurs God gets shoved aside, and maybe even right out of a person’s life.Agur wanted to keep God in the rightful place in his life. He wisely noted that too extreme a poverty can lead to theft, which may then be justified as survival - but which ends up dishonouring God. All he wanted was enough for the day.Not too much - not too little, but just enough. In his words of wisdom (Proverbs chapter 30) Agur also expresses his concern and compassion for the poor and needy. Many centuries later Jesus, the Christ, taught his followers to pray for their daily bread, and he revealed the need to keep things balanced - to first seek God and put their trust in him (not accumulation of wealth or possessions), and to focus on living one day at a time (see Matthew chapter 6) Jesus practiced what he preached.His possessions were few, but enough.He kept a balance between extremes, and he expressed his compassion for others in word and action. One of his well-known Apostles, Paul, also discovered these truths - and acknowledged that he had learned the secret of a balanced life of contentment - he was never too rich to think he didn’t need God, nor so poor that he felt he had to steal to survive.He expressed it with poignant clarity: ‘I have learned to be contentwhatever the circumstances.I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.I can do everything through him who gives me strength.’ (Philippians 4:11b-13) Nearer to our own time was George Washington Carver, known affectionately as the ‘Peanut Man’ and ‘Plant Doctor.’ George W. Carver was born a black African American slave in 1864 or 1865.Kidnapped by slave raiders; separated from his mother during the kidnapping (she may have beenkilled - nothing was ever heard from or about her after the kidnapping); never having known his real father (believed to be a slave from a neighbouring plantation who was killed in a accident around the time of George’s birth),the young, weak and sickly George was eventually returned to his mother’s (and his) owner, Moses Carter.Moses Carter and his wife, Susan, brought up George and his older brother Jim, as their own children. (Jim died of smallpox in 1883.) Due to his frailty and frequent illness George was spared the heavier duties of plantation and farming life. Instead of hard work in the fields, he spent a lot of time indoors, helping Susan with household chores - learning to cook, laundry, and mend clothes. He also learnt to read and write at home. Between chores he found time to wander out in the fields and forest where he became fascinated with nature. He had an insatiable desire for knowledge, especially about the natural world.He became skilled in dealing with plants, and collected all sorts of natural specimens.As a boy he gained the nickname, ‘Plant Doctor’, as a result of his natural skills in helping plants thrive and grow. He struggled with prejudice against ‘blacks’ - even amongst many Christians.As a result he could not attend the nearby school, and so left home at about the age of 10 to find a school that would accept him. He supported himself by doing chores and continued his quest for education.He faced opposition and rejection, but persisted.He also committed his life to Christ at about the age of 10. Through the highs and lows his Christian faith, and the encouragement of Christian friends, enabled him to keep going.By the time he accepted a faculty position at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes (Tuskegee Institute - now Tuskegee University) in Alambama, he had became a competent debater; excelled in art, music and poetry;had been a college campus military regimental Captain; had been involved in football and athletics; had shown teaching skills, and had gained his Master’s Degree in Botany. At Tuskegee he worked hard to improve the conditions and livelihood of his fellow African Americans - as well white farmers and the poor and needy generally. Years of farming cotton crops had impoverished the soil on most farms in the South.Then the boll weevil virtually destroyed what remained of the depleted cotton crops. George Washington Carver helped introduce soil enrichment programmes, crop rotation and alternative crops.He particularly worked on the peanut and helped to uncover enormous potential for it as a valued crop with all sorts of potential for extra products.He ultimately developed some 325 products from peanuts; 108 uses for sweet potatoes; 75 products from the pecan, and a wide range of products and uses from the soybean.His synthetic products and industrial applications from a range of some 28 different plants are well over 100 and include everything from adhesives, axle grease, bleach, milk, flour, dyes, ink, linoleum, to mayonnaise, shoe polish, shaving cream, talcum powder, wood filler, and more. Part of his secret was that he constantly talked to God and asked for his help in uncovering the hidden treasures in plants and other things of nature. George W. Carver was a writer, speaker and story teller.One of his popular stories (of which there are apparently various versions in many sources) is the one where he asked God why he made the peanut: ‘I asked God, “Why did you make the universe, Lord?” “Ask for something more in proportion to that little mind of yours,”replied God. “Why did you make the earth, Lord?” I asked. “Your little mind still wants to know far too much. Ask for something more in proportion to that little mind of yours,” replied God. “Why did you make man, Lord?” I asked. “Far too much. Far too much. Ask again,” replied God. “Explain to me why you made plants, Lord,” I asked. “Your little mind still wants to know far too much.” “The peanut?” I asked meekly. “Yes! For your modest proportions I will grant you the mystery of the peanut.Take it inside your laboratory and separate it into water, fats, oils, gums, resins, sugars, starches and amino acids.Then recombine these under my three laws of compatibility, temperature and pressure. Then you will know why I made the peanut.”’ He believed his ideas and inventions came to him as gifts from God (actually he spent many hours in research and work himself).In spite of all his many inventions, by-products and recipes, he only ever registered three patents. His response was: ‘God gave them to me; how can I sell them to someone else?’ Though he sought salary raises at the Tuskegee Institute, when he was offered much larger salaries to work for Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, he chose to remain working at the Tuskegee Institute to improve the quality of life for the struggling, poor and needy. His response was: ‘If I took that money, I might forget my people.’ Throughout his life George W. Carver remained single - he was married to his cause and his Christ.When he died on January 5, 1943, he left his estate of some $33,000 to the Tuskegee Institute where it was used to establish an agricultural research foundation. A statement that has become linked to George Washington Carver, almost as a lasting epitaph, is well worth some thoughtful consideration today: ‘It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts.Thesemean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.’ | ||