The first was an email conversation with a young friend. In last week’s blog I had quoted
a poem by Wendell Berry that said:
“So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.”
My friend had coffee with one of his friends and part of the exchange sounded like,
“That’s all well and good but not for those of us who live in the real world. Those options
are not open to us. We cannot work for nothing. We cannot simply work at things that
are creative.” He was right. Maybe someday but not now.
The second was a conversation with a friend who was concerned about coming to the
end of his life and not doing what he had wanted to do. It was something he had put off
for one reason or another because of other responsibilities and he was concerned if he
had what it would take to start over. There is a poem by Langston Hughes titled, “A
Dream Deferred” and while it is talking about the dream of racial equality, it might as well
be talking about other dreams as well.
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
Those things lead you to Caleb. What better example of a dream deferred? Some
dreams die or dry up like a raisin in the sun. Some fester and some end in an explosion
but some stay alive for decades and wait patiently.
Read Numbers 13:2614:10
1. It’s important to note that Caleb was the only outsider chosen for the venture. His
roots went back to Esau but he is selected to represent the tribe of Judah. That has
made some think he was a convert and as a convert he would have been an outsider in
an insider organization. He was definitely “not one of us” and I am sure there was some
discussion about why he was one of the party to explore the land. How could an outsider
be trusted with our future?
But, it’s almost always what Malcolm Gladwell calls “the outlier” who sees the opportunity
because they are not blinded by all the accepted wisdom and the preconceived notions of
the insiders. It’s what consultants describe as “all significant change comes not from the
center but from the periphery and from the unexpected source.” Those most dedicated to
and with the most vested interest in the survival of the status quo rarely see the new
opportunity. One of my friends said it was our tendency to think, “Let’s do yesterday
only better this time.”
Pareto’s Principle is what we call the 80/20 rule. In fundraising they know that 80% of
the money comes from 20% of the donors. It’s true that 80% of the sales come from 20%
of the customers and it’s true inside organizations as well. Most of the new ideas come
from a minority of sources. The majority almost always resist change or are threatened
by it. I had some good advice years ago for when a new employee joins the organization.
After they have been there 60 days invite them to tell you what they see that doesn’t
make sense. After 60 days they will stop seeing.
If you cannot swim then looking at a 40 foot wave will make you run for your life. If you
are a surfer it will make you paddle into it. The same wave creates two totally different
responses.
What did Caleb see? He saw the opportunity while the others saw themselves being
drowned.
2. He is one of the 20% (actually even less) who sees the land is good and the Lord
loves us.
They see obstacles and he sees opportunity. They see giants and he sees giants as well.
He’s not deluded. They both see the same wave..but he sees that the Lord has removed
their protection. Their size does not matter in the least.
They want to stone Caleb and Joshua and pick new leadership. Leadership that will take
them backwards to slavery. Freedom is too much for them. Last week we talked about
the “Grand Inquisitor” and his conclusion that people will choose slavery over the
hardships of freedom every time. Give them bread and distractions and they will give up
their freedom. People want certainty and security. “That day must come when men will
understand that freedom and daily bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can
never be had together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two among
themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be free, for they are weak,
vicious, miserable nonentities born wicked and rebellious.”
I think Caleb may have been thinking about Esau and not wanting to repeat the same
mistake. He was not going to trade his opportunity for a little security.
3. Caleb is faithful not just to God but to the people. How does he react to such total
rejection? Does he strike off on his own? Does he become a burr under the saddle and
a cynical critic? Does he stir up a revolution? None of these.
He wanders with them in total obscurity. Nothing is ever said about him again. He is
invisible. He accepts their punishment of wandering in the wilderness for forty years.
He fights their battles and puts up with their complaints, their grumbling, their cowardice,
their rebellions and their faithlessness.
He watches a whole generation die from disease, the ground swallowing them up, mass
catastrophes and slaughter.
To be faithful is sometimes to be a long time wandering with unfaithful and unpleasant
people until they see what you saw so long ago.
God didn’t reward him right away but left him to wander with the rest. And, in a way, his
sentence was worse than theirs because while they deserved it he did not. He lived with
the dream while they lived the rest of their lives with the knowledge they had failed.
Nobody stays with losers but Caleb did.
What kept him going? He never lost sight of “it is a wonderful country and the Lord is with
us.” That’s the mark of the 20%. His eyes were always on the prize every day of the 40
years.
I cannot help but think of General MacArthur’s final speech to the cadets at West Point
when he speaks to them of Duty, Honor and Country.
“Duty, Honor, Country” — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought
to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage
when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to
create hope when hope becomes forlorn. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan,
but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker,
and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them
even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold
you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation’s defense. They make you strong
enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.”
There are times in life when the dream is deferred but we do our duty…and we wait.
Oftentimes, the real battle is not the giants in the land but staying faithful in the
wilderness. Staying focused on “the land is good and the Lord is with us.”
And teaching a whole new generation to believe that so they are ready when the time
comes. It wasn’t enough for a whole generation to die. Someone had to teach the new
generation so they would not be just like the one that was unfaithful. There had to be a
few who had the influence and character to bring up a generation who had the courage to
go into the land. Caleb became that person who inspired the children of those
condemned to wander while all the rest of the scouts died.
4. What is his reward?
Read Joshua 14:612
At 85 he had every right to pick the beach or the easy places but he doesn’t. He picks the
hill country where the giants still live. That’s what he has carried around for 45 years. It
hasn’t festered or dried up. It has not made him bitter or weighed down or even angry.
He picks the giants and then their 45 year reprieve is over. Nothing had changed for
him. The sin of the young is presumption. The sin of the old is regret. Caleb had no
regrets. He blamed no one. He never says he wasted his life wandering in the
wilderness.
He didn’t say “killing giants is for younger men.” I think there are some giants you find at
40 that have to wait until God is ready and there are some reserved for later in life. Every
age has giants.
Was it worth the 45 year wait? Of course it was. Remember he had to wait five more
years after they came into Canaan. He even waited until everyone else had been
assigned land before claiming his. He was the first to believe and the last to receive.
What does 14:15 say? “Then the land had rest from war.”
I’ve got a mental picture of Caleb heading off into the hills followed by a whole group of 40
year old men who were just born when he saw this place for the first time. A whole group
of men who have been taught by him to believe it is a beautiful land and the Lord is with
us.
5. But Caleb was not just a patient and faithful hero. He left more than dead giants
scattered around. In fact, that may have been the easy part. He left a great legacy.
Look at Judges 1:1215.
He raised an unusual daughter Aksah. He gave her very little a bit of dry land. He
gave her a challenging situation. How did she respond? She took the initiative. How did
he respond? He gave her double what she asked for.
He encouraged and influenced an unusual son-in-law in Othniel. Look at Judges 3:711.
His son-in-law was the first judge of Israel when the people cried out to the Lord. “The
Spirit of the Lord came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war….So
the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel… died.”
But it goes even further. The children of warriors become artists and craftsmen. In fact,
they create a whole community of craftsmen and artists. Look at 1 Chronicles 4:1314.
The great-grandsons in his brother’s family become the next generation of the 20%. I
love the quote by John Adams:
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and
philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural
history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their
children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and
porcelain.”
It is what one generation owes to the next.
Finally, we read about the last descendant mentioned almost 300 years later. It is Heldai
and he is one of the great commanders appointed by King David to defend Jerusalem
with 24,000 men under his command. He is standing with David when the King
announces the building of the Temple. A whole family for generations has been marked
by loyalty, integrity, initiative, creativity and perseverance.
It is a legacy of duty, honor and country, isn’t it? Not an isolated hero like so many who
did great things and left destruction in their wake but a man who persevered in spite of
rejection, unfaithfulness, hardship, betrayal and the death of an entire generation. He
might have deferred the dream but he never let it die. But even more than that he created
a legacy that lasted hundreds of years after him.
We cannot all be Caleb’s. The odds are against it. But we can be faithful. We can avoid
cynicism and bitterness. We can redeem the time while we wait. We can invest in the
next generation. We can keep our hearts guided by it is a beautiful land and the Lord is
with us.