Wisdom of the Ages – Lessons Learned

By Dr. J. Ellsworth Kalas

Probably most of the lessons that have come my way over the decades are a kind of vague conglomerate.  But here are some things that stand out in my soul.

• Buy a house on Gratitude Street. Do so as soon as you can, because this is the only place to live, and the longer you live here the more you’ll love it.  And believe me, you will enjoy your neighbors.  The price on this street is steep, but you can afford it.  You purchase this property with humility, by acknowledging that you are deeply indebted to both God and people.  You confess that you wouldn’t have anything if it weren’t for what has been given to you.  The important thing is not only to realize this, but to acknowledge it – to say “thank you” as often as you can, to God and to people.

• Keep confessed up. When I was eighteen years old and traveling with a male quartet, I met a preacher whose true piety impressed me so much that I asked him to write something in my Bible.  He wrote three or four rules of godly living.  This is the one for which I am most grateful – and which I have found most difficult to keep.  I have learned, slowly and sometimes painfully, that if I confess my sins regularly and earnestly I will live a better life.

• Make friends of your regrets. Regrets can destroy us, or they can help us grow.  The apostle Paul was grievously burdened by the memory of the havoc he had wrought before his conversion in his persecution of the church.  Those memories could easily have driven him to despair.  I suspect that some worthy counselor might have told Paul to be done with such negative thinking.  Instead, the apostle allowed his regrets to energize him.  He made good friends of his regrets, visiting them when they would bless him.

• Don’t take yourself too seriously. I love Elijah and I wish I had known him.  But he took himself far too seriously.  After winning a great battle for God, he lost heart when he began to think that nobody appreciated him enough – especially, that God didn’t.  So he explained to God that he had served valiantly, and that he was the only faithful one left.  This is to say, Elijah was advising God that without Elijah, God was in trouble.  God told him that there were still thousands who hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal.  I think God was letting Elijah know that when he was gone, God still had several troops that could swing into action.

• Find a friend with good taste who loves you anyway. In my lifetime I’ve been blessed with at least two such friends.  They knew my imperfections but they knew when not to mention them to me.  If you get one friend like this, you are greatly blessed.  If you get two or more, thank God twenty times a day.

• Take exceeding care of your friendship with God. God’s friendship balances and corrects our other friendships, and you can count on it absolutely.  And of course the better our friendship with God, the better equipped we’ll be for human friendship.  

• Invest in good memories. Some memories are thrust upon us by people, by experiences, and by circumstances, so we get them whether we want them or not.  But we can build some memories of our own.   This is the importance of life’s events:  birthdays and anniversaries, graduations and reunions, meals with friends – such occasions can make us memories-rich.  And more than that, these good, new memories can help crowd out some old memories that oppress.

• Begin and end your days with God. There is no better way to set a day on course than by meeting God in the morning.  Do so intentionally, or other things will crowd God out.  And end the day in the strength of God’s caring, the way you did when you used to pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep.”  This is still the best mood in which to get a good night’s rest.

I wish you well on the holy journey.

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