Good Advice

Good Advice

Proverbs 3:1-6

            It’s no secret that I love the newspaper comics.  I have a collection of some of my favorites on a corkboard in my office.  Trouble is, I’ve run out of space on the board and I keep finding new ones. 

            One of my favorites over the years has been Family Circus, drawn by Bill Keane.  Actually, the first Bill Keane is no longer with us.  I understand his son Bill (the Billy of the cartoon) is now responsible for the drawing.  What a blessing it must be to inherit something so successful and carry on your father’s work!

            A recent Sunday installment of Family Circus is about success.  Young Billy asks his father, “Do you think I’ll ever be a success, Daddy?”  The father answers, “Sure!” then gives him some wonderful advice.  Success isn’t a destination, he says, but a journey.  “If you only find success at the end of the road it’s too late—the journey’s over.”

            Too many people strive for some final success.  “If I only get there,” they say, “I’ll be fulfilled.  I’ll have all I want, be all I’ve ever dreamed of being.  I’ll have reached the top.”

            As someone has said, too many people spend their lives climbing the ladder of success only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.  What a condemnation!

            Bill Keane’s advice to his son?  “Enjoy all your successes—right now, today, tomorrow…” 

            Young Billy sees himself wandering the road of life along the dotted line that is always used in this cartoon to represent someone walking, this time with little starbursts along the way. 

            “Yeah,” Billy says, “I like it.”

            We would do well to listen to Bill Keane.  God gave us this life, this world to enjoy.  God expects us to stop and smell the roses, and to grow a few roses of our own along the way.

            Many years ago I took a class in grad school.  The professor often divided us into groups to discuss the topics he (very briefly) expounded upon.  One night, at the end of class, he told us to go home and look at the change points in our lives—times we had been moving in one direction only to find ourselves suddenly pointed in an entirely different direction—and be prepared to share them with a partner.

            It was an interesting assignment, and one that proved valuable, then and often since.  It’s easy to see successes when we look at our lives that way.  We also see what we thought of as failures at the time recognized as successes when seen through life’s rear-view mirror.  It’s a good way to check up on blessings you might have missed the first time through.

            The writer of Proverbs had some good advice for his son.  We find it throughout the early chapters.  No matter what age we are, or what gender, we would do well to thoughtfully read the words the author addressed to “my son.”  Some of these words will be familiar: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” for example.  Others will not be so well-known, but are worth reading and remembering.

            Our lives are journeys, with many stopping places and side roads, and with no firm ending point.  Along the road we need to enjoy all our successes.  We also need to heed all the good advice we hear, to store it in our memories for future occasions.  We never know when it will come in handy, when we will need to call to mind the words of people like our parents, Bill Keane, the author of Proverbs, and many other sources. 

            Happy trails, fair winds, and safe harbors.