A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

Philippians 2:4, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”  The late Alex Haley, was an American writer known as the author of the 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family.  The book was adapted by ABC as a TV mini-series of the same name and aired in 1977 to a record-breaking 130 million viewers.  Haley had on his office wall a unique picture of a turtle sitting atop a fence post.  When someone asked him about it, Haley would say, “If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know that he had some help.  Anytime I start thinking, ‘Wow, isn’t this marvelous what I’ve done?’  I look at that picture and remember how this turtle, me, got up on that post.”  We would all do well to emulate Haley’s perspective.  In our Scripture lesson today, Paul the apostle shares a principle that runs counter to much of the thinking in our present world.  Many perceive helping another to be successful is to detract from our opportunities for advancement.  Yet it is in sowing into the lives of others that ensures a harvest of success that will flow into ours.  The Dead Sea is dead, because it has an inflow of water, but no outflow.  Paul the apostle wrote in Ephesians 6:7, 8, “With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord . . .” Each of us can look back over our lives and remember specific watershed moments that enabled us to succeed: a patient professor, a benevolent employer, a business associate, a close friend, or even a kind stranger.  Life is not a solitary journey.  God places not only the right people in our lives for strategic moments but also places us in the lives of others to help them along their path.  In the words of Alex Haley, “If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know that he had some help.”  I pray that we would be the source of that help.  To lift those that God has blessed us to encounter, with each new day.