STARS AND SERVANTS

STARS AND SERVANTS

It amazes me that great ideas come out from friends who post their thoughts and feelings in the social media platform. One said that after this COVID 19 crisis is over he vowed not idolize anymore movie stars, celebrities, singers, actors and actresses, even politicians, because he realized the real heroes in our society are the doctors, nurses, medical professionals, social workers, scientists and health care workers whose courage, dedication, and sacrifices are worth emulating.

 

This got me to thinking of something I read a long time ago, and the memory clicked. I rummaged through my books and there it was, Philip Yancey’s best seller.

Philip Yancey was a successful journalist who became a Christian.  In his book titled “Where Is God When It Hurts” he has this remarkable observation:

“In my career as a Journalist I have interviewed diverse people. Looking back I can roughly divide them into two types: Stars and Servants. The Stars include sporting heroes, film actors, music performers, famous authors, TV personalities and the like. In my limited experience these ‘idols’ are as miserable group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriage. Nearly all are hopelessly dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony these larger than life heroes seem tormented by incurable doubt.

I have also spent time with Servants. People like Dr. Paul Brand who worked for twenty years among the poorest of the poor, leprosy patients in rural India. Or relief workers in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh or other such repositories of human suffering. I was prepared to honor and admire these servants, to hold them up as shining examples. I was not however prepared to envy them.

But as I now reflect on the two groups side by side, Stars and Servants, the servants clearly emerge the favored ones. They work for low pay, long hours and no applause ‘wasting’ their talents and skills among the poor and uneducated. But somehow in the process of losing their lives, they have found them.”

This cuts right through the heart of the matter. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)  This is only one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith.

The challenging statement is this: as we “waste” our lives on other people, for the sake of Christ, we will find life and all of its fullness.

We shall overcome. 

KEEP OFF THE GRASS

Keep Off The Grass

A nurse was on duty in the Emergency Room, when a young woman with purple hair styled into a punk rocker Mohawk, sporting a variety of tattoos, and wearing strange clothing, entered.

 It was quickly determined that the punk rocker Mohawk, had acute appendicitis, so she was scheduled for immediate surgery.

 When she was completely disrobed on the operating table, the doctors and nurses  noticed that her pubic hair had been dyed green, and above it there was a tattoo that read, "Keep off the grass."

Once the surgery was completed, the surgeon wrote a short note on the patient's dressing, which said, "Sorry, had to mow the lawn."

LOGICAL RECOURSE

LOGICAL RECOURSE

I was a skinny, shy, longhaired, bespectacled, teenager, when I entered university in the seventies. This was the age of the American  hippies and the flower people, whose  get up and free spirit somehow infected the Filipino youth . I was taking courses in Political Science when I first met this girl who was pursuing a Nursing course. 

How I happened to be in a class of nursing students was due to my indolence than anything else. I enrolled late and all the subjects in Logic, were closed, except for a slot in the block section of Nursing students. Thus I found myself the only male student in a class, which smelled  of girls. I don’t know why girls emit a peculiar smell when they are in one enclosed space. Might be the acute primal instinct in a male.

It wasn’t so bad. I had the good fortune of  sitting with a tall pretty girl at the back row. The Professor, fortunately was my Poli-Sci. professor, as well, so we knew each other. He just grinned and let me be as he focused to impress the girls with his logic and erudition.

Now,  studying logic could be very annoying. I asked my seatmate what relevance has this, in the science of caring for people anyway? She said it was required in the curriculum.  Well the course was not only confusing but could be difficult.

Imagine this: 

“All men are mortals, Socrates is a man, therefore, Socrates is mortal.”

“ Some mammals are cows, all humans are mammals, therefore, some men are cows”.

“No man is a pig. God is not a man. Therefore God is a pig.”

I know the girls were having a bit of hard-time in this mental exercise that most had low quizzes. My pretty neighbor was having a hard-time, so the gentleman that I was I promised her she could copy my answers, but not all of it, just so she could pass. So we became friends.

There were times when I missed two class days that when I got back and parked beside my pretty seatmate, she had that forlorn look. I did not know really what was the matter, she had been very quiet. When the bell rang,  she collected her things. I asked if I could walk with her. She nodded. 

When we were alone, she quietly said she failed in the last quiz. So there was a quiz which I missed.  I said I’m sorry, I’d make it up to her next time, but I couldn’t  allow her to cheat all the time. I proposed that she needed tutoring and I’d be willing to do it during free-time. So I did. We would meet up at the library and dissect the syllogisms. 

The semester ended, she passed the subject. She went on to become a Nurse.  She sweetly thanked me, and with a kiss on the cheek, whispered  to guard our secret forever.

What the hell. It happened a very long time ago. So the secret is out.   

(Photo by niyamaklogic.wordpress.com)