| Ecclesiastes 4:9 – “Two people are better than one, when two people work together, they get more from the work they do.” |
Part of the American vocabulary is the concept of the “self-made man.”
Henry Clay coined the term. He used it to describe men who owe their success in life only to themselves.
The phrase described Benjamin Franklin who, from extreme poverty rose to the level of the polymath and father of the United States.
It appeals to the American psyche of independence. And some, proclaim that they did it on their own. As Frank Sinatra crooned, I did it my way.
We pick up ideas and they adhere like a burr to a sock. And they are repeated often enough that we accept them.
But is anyone self-made?
The story is told of a famous organist early in the 19th century.
Organs needed someone to pump the handle to blow the air to propel the music.
So, the organist paid a boy a few pennies to pump the organ for the evening performance.
Once the concert finished, the organist could not shake the boy. The young man tagged along and kept saying, “We had a great concert tonight, didn’t we?”
Finally, irritated, the organist turned and said, “what do you mean by “we? I had a great concert. Now why don’t you go home?
The next night the organist was half through the concert when the organ fell silent. He was shocked and wondered what was wrong. Then, the little boy poked his head around the corner of the organ and said, “We ain’t having a very good concert tonight, are we?”
Few people can escape the use of we…for there is we in all of us.
We have been raised by others, been given opportunities by others, and befriended by others.
I have always found it interesting that for all the fame Paul has carried through history, he never claimed it for his own.
In Romans 16, Paul ends his epic work on faith with a list of names.
“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon, of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.” (Romans 16:1–4)
In all in that chapter, he names 24 people, many for the first and only time.
Paul knew that no man’s success is his own. And neither is ours.
Take time to remember all the people who have poured themselves silently and humbly into your life. And then, you “we” means something.
Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
