The Fortune Cookie
My wife was stopping at the grocery store and called me to ask if I’d like something brought home for dinner. I replied, “General Tao’s chicken.”
I don’t know what made me pick that but what I do know is that my meal came with a fortune cookie. The fortune was: “Stay humble in your successes and gracious in your failures”
In my mind, a broken clock is right twice a day. In other words, there is plenty of wisdom and inspirational ideas even if they come from a secular source (not that that beats the Bible, mind you). So, I started pondering the advice.
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” - James 4:1-10 ESV
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” - Matthew 23:23
“At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:25-30
“Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous; do no violence to his home; for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.” - Proverbs 24:15-18 ESV
The wisdom of my fortune cookie fortune was good because it made me stop and think. However, that wisdom and much much more is available to you if you read your Bible. Don’t skip or just scan the Old Testament. It contains all the psalms and proverbs that a person would ache to remember if they were to be a persecuted position as the Jews were during the Holocaust.
I heard Leanna Crawford explain the inspiration of one of the more recent Psalm 23 songs, Still Waters. In the interview, she explained that she had a great aunt that had passed away a few years earlier. The significance of this relative was, and I’m using my memory to remember the details so don’t hold me to the specifics, that this aunt found out she was losing her sight at a younger age and only had a short time left before she’d be blind. This woman resolved to memorize as much of the Bible as she could before she lost her sight. Since one of my irrational fears in life is the loss of my sight, this struck me as both brave and inspired.
Hopefully, I’ll never know what it’s like to need comfort in a concentration camp or find out I’m losing my sight and only have a short time of seeing left. But I pray that if God has such plans for me that I’ll bravely face his plan for me as Leanna’s aunt and as those who credited their survival at the concentration camp as having memorized the Bible.
What about you?
