Listen to “The Passing Of The Hero” by Fred Smith   Oswald Chambers wrote “Our soul’s history with God is frequently the history of the passing of the hero. It is not wrong for you to depend on your “Elijah” for as long as God gives him to you. But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader because God does not intend for him to stay.” When I read last week that Eugene Peterson had entered hospice care I felt bereft. It was not mourning although I know that will come soon. It was being left without…

Listen to “All Things In Common” By Fred Smith   I posted an article on the shrinking of the middle class as an increasing number of people are falling into the category of economically at risk. “Squeezed by rising living costs a record number of Americans – nearly 1 in 2 – have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.” While not saying much about the article, I did say, “Is it un-Christian of me to doubt these numbers?” A Facebook friend responded with a private message to voice his disagreement with my skepticism. Out of that has come an interesting exchange…

Listen to “Double Fault” by Fred Smith   Nicky Gumbel, the Rector of Holy Trinity Brompton in London says, “Movements grow from the intersection of a personal story and circumstances.” It’s true, isn’t it? Movements cannot be explained any other way. They do not begin without an extraordinary individual, but that person must come at just the right time and under the right set of circumstances making change possible. It’s like an earthquake. Some strike with little effect and others, like the one in Indonesia last week, not only destroy a city but the tsunami and aftershock kill and displace thousands far away. There are also personal earthquakes. For some,…

Listen to “What Is In Your Hand?” by Fred Smith   Since childhood, I have read the story of Moses at the burning bush and his reluctance in returning to Egypt and bringing the people of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land. “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”   Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”   “A staff,” he replied.  The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”  Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to…

Listen to “Monks and Money” by Fred Smith   One of my treasures is a framed picture of Peter Drucker, Bob Buford, Tom Luce and myself outside Peter’s house in Estes Park in the early 1990’s. Underneath it, Bob wrote, “The Beginning of the Social Entrepreneur Network.” It was an idea we had been working on for several years and one that was close to Peter’s heart as it combined two of his basic concepts – the value of the entrepreneur as a creative force and the social responsibility that entailed. I’ve been thinking about this recently because, like the word philanthropy, the phrase “social entrepreneur” has morphed over the…

Listen to “Grand Central” by Fred Smith   Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… W.B. Yeats “The Second Coming” is one of the most quoted poems in history for at any moment enough people feel things are truly falling apart and the center cannot hold. But, ironically, centers falling apart is the very thing that keeps history moving forward. If the center were to hold forever everything would be stagnant and unchanging. It is, in many ways, the failure of the center to be permanent that makes all progress possible. Mere anarchy is not the only option. I know Yeats is describing…

Listen to “All That Is Hidden” by Fred Smith   “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn Over the years, I have returned to read the remarks of Alexander Solzhenitsyn given at Harvard University in 1978 and published later as “A World Split Apart” in which he plays the prophet by his indictment of the corruption of the West through a combination of the seduction of luxury, extreme individualism and the loss of courage. For my generation, Solzhenitsyn became a hero for an era that had seen the dethroning of many…

Listen to “Losing Our Powers” by Fred Smith   In a recent New York Times article, “When a $1,000 Gift is Better Than $1 Million” Paul Sullivan writes about Donna and Benjamin Rosen who were once in the “big leagues” of philanthropy giving away tens of millions of dollars. But, as Ben Rosen puts it, “I gave away too much, too soon, and lived too long. Our days of philanthropy are gone. We’re not making multimillion-dollar donations anymore. But there’s still a lot of room for philanthropy.” We read about foundations deciding to voluntarily “sunset” after a defined number of years but what about those who give away too much too soon and outlive their…

Listen to “Not Fade Away” By Fred Smith   I was 38 when I realized I was a misfit in my work. Teaching in a traditional boarding school on the East Coast, I was working overtime to adapt – but unsuccessfully. It was no one’s fault. It was simply not the right place for me. During that time I discovered a book by Ralph Mattson and Art Miller, Finding a Job You Can Love. Their book changed my life because the authors (who then became friends) showed me how God had designed me in a particular way to accomplish a particular kind of work. I could try to shoehorn myself…

Listen to “Is All Truth God’s Truth” by Fred Smith   I still remember my response in 1985 when our local Christian radio station turned down my request to play the Judy Collins version of “Amazing Grace” because, while it was clearly a Christian song, they had qualms about their listeners hearing it from Judy Collins. “What narrow minds! What does it matter who sings it as long as the message is Christian or not inconsistent with Christian values? Why should we be so legalistic about the packaging if the content is the same? After all, it was our own St. Augustine who said, ‘All Truth is God’s Truth’” Now, many years later,…