Specializing

ByHal Hammons

The decal on the side of the truck read, “Specializing in all types of exterior siding.”  I scrambled for a pen so I could jot it down before the light changed.  Inspiration strikes at odd times, and we must be ready.

Pick a lane, says I to the small business owner.  Either is fine.  Be a specialist.  Be a generalist.  But don’t tell people you are both.  It looks amateurish at best, deceptive at worst.  Neither will entice me to call your number (which, no coincidence, I did not jot down).

This is not what Paul meant by being “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22).  He meant that he adjusted his approach to his audience based on their background, knowledge and experience.  That’s just reasonable.  Don’t use subway analogies in cattle country, and vice versa.

There is a time and place for being a specialist.  One scholar I heard of was determined to be the world’s ranking expert on the book of Ephesians.  More power to him.  We need specialists.  Just don’t become so focused on one aspect of your spiritual diet that you ignore other essentials entirely.

There is a time and place for being a generalist.  Reading the entire Bible this year is our attempt to stress the entirety of God’s message for mankind.  All was given, therefore all is important.  Just don’t be satisfied with just touching all the bases.  We must grow in the gospel (2 Peter 3:18).

Just don’t claim to be “specializing” in “all types” of anything.  You don’t have enough hours in the week to do that.  Claiming otherwise makes you look (depending on my attitude in the moment) either arrogant, desperate, or ignorant. 

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Going

ByHal Hammons

Harriet Tubman, the great warrior of the Underground Railroad, is quoted as saying, “If you hear the dogs, keep going.  If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.  If there’s shouting after you, keep going.  Don’t ever stop.  Keep going.  If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”

Walkouts

ByHal Hammons

I have to admit, I am not a big fan of walkouts.  And I appear to be in the minority.  Everyone seems to be staging walkouts these days.  Generally, as I understand it, a walkout involves people abandoning their proper, useful activity such as school or work and spending their time instead telling people how righteous their cause is — as though school and work are not righteous causes themselves.

I’m not doubting the sincerity of the people involved, nor am I necessarily casting aspersions on their respective causes.  I’m just saying, it’s very convenient to pat yourself on the back for taking a day off.

Enslaved no longer

ByHal Hammons

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’ ” — John 8:34-36

 

Sinners do not properly understand the principle of being enslaved to sin. They know nothing other than slavery. They have found contentment and even joy in slavery. They have convinced themselves that sin is the inevitable and preferred state of mankind. By committing themselves to slavery, though, they are prohibiting themselves from living the life that they were, in the most literal of senses, born to live.