People want to get ahead. Presumably, it’s why great emphasis is placed on working hard. Who wants to be left behind? Goal-minded people work to get ahead because it’s not only a noble pursuit; but it’s the American way, right? In our culture, high value is placed on getting a good education, so when the time comes, one has the ability to secure a prestigious, well-paying job. Remember the old sitcom, “The Jeffersons” and the show’s theme song lyric suggesting the good life: “just moving on up...to that deluxe apartment in the sky.” Is there anything wrong with wanting to get ahead? Not at all, but at what cost?
Consider a story that tells of two people walking in the woods when they come across a bear. The first person reaches into their backpack and pulls out a pair of sneakers, sits down and starts to put them on. “Why are you putting on sneakers? You can’t outrun a bear,” the second person says. The first responds, “I don’t have to outrun a bear, I just have to outrun you.” No lack of moral clarity here: if one is going to be eaten by a bear it’s better you than me. Just stay out in front of the next guy and everything will be alright.
Unfortunately, that may be a thought process of some who put getting ahead above all else, even a friend. The story illustrates a flawed human nature, the evidence is visible everywhere in our modern culture. Everything is OK—when it’s me that’s OK. From my perspective, and a faith and values point of view, that isn’t the way a person really gets ahead. The story of escaping a bear is more a story of a broken moral compass.
Achieving moral clarity is the responsibility of everyone. Communities are increasingly pluralistic and diverse. For that reason alone, decent people must find ways to live, work and serve together harmoniously. Drive around neighborhoods and see various signs identifying mosques, synagogues, temples and churches, different to be sure, but coexisting for calling together people of faith. Each of these faith communities invite a conscious contact with the Creator, then, promote the value of serving one’s neighbor as a way to find meaning for life. The sad reality is there’s plenty of room to park suggesting vast numbers of people still out running to get ahead. In short, a best value indicates that when a neighbor is helped, the community is better for it. It’s a powerful message that people need to hear again.
A verse in Old Testament Scripture offers an ethic and teaches of moral responsibility:
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
It is written in the form of a rhetorical question (not requiring an answer) because the verse is the answer. It is a moral ethic upon which strong communities are founded and remain vital. In the larger Orange County community, regardless of the city in which we live, we are bound together as fellow humans all desiring a good life and the best of it. Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Striving to do justice, loving tenderly and walking humbly with God and neighbor is a human imperative and must be done repeatedly.
In the end, it may be difficult to outrun a bear, however with moral clarity illuminating the way; all people can walk and run together. I believe sage wisdom is great advice for all generations. Here’s another question to think about: why couldn’t people join hands to help each other cross a finish line together? It’s rhetorical.
Rev. Michael Schneider
With Eagle’s Wings
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