The Broadway play Your Arm's Too Short to Box with God opened at the Lyceum Theater in New York City in 1976 and closed in 1978. The show is based on a passage of scripture found in Matthew's Gospel. I never cease to be amazed at those who think they can live this life as just another breathing animal. Before the very foundation of the world, we were made in the image of God and our destiny is that God is in charge of everything including our lives. Authentic humility is the discovery of truth and the truth is that God is in charge of everything.
Around 40 years ago, I became very interested in radio talk shows. Music is wonderful and I enjoy music. I have a collection of over 50,000 records: classical and semi-classical. But nothing thrills the human psyche like the symphony of the human voice; conversations of individuals expressing their opinions.
I am probably the best known radio caller in the area and have made many friends via radio talk shows across the nation. Talk shows have become the most important area of technological communication. Why do you see everyone with a telephone in front of their face? They love the sound of people talking to them. A friend of mine, the New York radio personality, Barry Farber, native of Greensboro was in my graduating class at UNC Chapel Hill. I have been a talker on radio talk shows for many years. One day, on the Farber Show, I called and said, “You and I are sitting in Keenan Stadium. Here comes Coach Snavley with his hat on, his play notebooks under his arm, and what do you know? Here comes Charlie Justice and Art Weiner and all the other great players we knew.” I said, “You can tell Coach Snavley means business today.” Much to my surprise, because it had been many years since I had talked with him, even though I had sent him some ancient original UNC yearbooks, and thanked him for being such an inspiration and credit to our university across the nation. He said, “Where have you been? Why have you not called me before?”
I truly believe, in this world of the insanity of Michael Jackson memorials, Obama bail-outs, the lackadaisical attitude persisting around us regarding every area of human existence, that the only possible way conservatism can save this country is with talk radio and the small Christian church which still proclaims sin's ruin and Christ's redemption.
Two men in jail, looked out through the bars. One saw muddy ground, the other looked up and saw stars. I'm convinced, in this time with Madoff in handcuffs, Stanford in leg irons, that most of our fellow citizens would still free the thief Barabbas. But, those three crosses, for time and eternity, one thief on our blessed Lord's left who never expressed innocence but asked for forgiveness was promised Paradise. The other thief, who recognized the omnipotence of our blessed Lord just wanted to come off the cross so he could go on thieving. It's unfortunate that the dying thief on the cross, asking God to remember him, had spent his life in a wasted existence. There are billions around us everyday, living the same worthless existence. Saint Augustine said, “Our lives are restless until we find rest in Him.”
Christianity flourished in North Africa after the plague because the unsaved natives, saw the difference in attitude as the Christians buried their dead. The sorrows of this world cannot compare to the joys of heaven. The rich man, who had enjoyed so much of this world's wealth, lifted up his eyes in hell (Luke 16) whereas Stephen stoned, as Saul held the coats of the hurlers of stones, lifted up his eyes and saw Christ in heaven awaiting him (Acts 8).
We live in a state of such confusion. We have a greater capacity for pain than for pleasure. Just this week, we have such a perfect example of someone who has enjoyed so much of this world's wealth (estimated spent $100,000 a day on lifestyle) who because of excesses and addictions died at an early age and we have seen the news media go absolutely berserk and seen talk shows dominated by this one man's death who we are kind enough to say was controversial.
It is estimated that one and a half million people tried to get tickets to his funeral service in an auditorium which seats 17,000 people. I heard a black preacher, come on a radio talk show and talk about how great he was and how excited the “black pop folks” would be in heaven. Does one honestly think, that the King of Pop wanted to meet the King of Kings? Is there any sane person who believes that the King of Pop cared anything about our blessed Lord and those who believe in Him while Jackson was here on earth? Has God been so minimized, has the sacrifice of our blessed Lord been so vaporized, has the Christian church become so insignificant, that those saved by grace through faith in our precious Lord will no longer stand up and defend, even offer to identify the blessed cross on which our Lord “paid it all”?
In Atisha's Book of Wisdom, we find these words, “The dewdrop slipping from a lotus leaf and the morning sun shining on it and creating a small rainbow around it, and the moment is so overwhelming...the dewdrop slipping off the leaf, just on the verge of meeting with the infinite, disappearing into the lake – and it is as if you start slipping, as if your drop starts slipping into the ocean of God.” The dewdrop is like the universe to God.
As one of my favorite authors, Father Benedict Roshelle, has stated, “We might as well forget yesterday, the past. Tomorrow is a mystery. All we have is the moment.” Every moment of our life should be devoted entirely to our Savior. We are blessed to have a book in which the Creator of the universe can speak directly to us, answer all of our problems, through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We live in a world where people cheat themselves. How can one survive these days, without having the “blessed assurance” that Christ has already “paid it all”? Why should you listen to the uninformed, misinformed pagans of the airways, even the heathen who call talk shows who believe that sin is natural and normal? Why should black people, lamenting the death of a black entertainer accept the words of a black president who compares the awfulness of the Civil Rights struggle in which many of us participated with the culture shock of the impotence of the gay and lesbian agenda?
We live, move, and have our very being through the grace of God, extended to “whosoever will.” His sacrifice was made for all because He is not willing that any should perish but that all shall have eternal life. (John 3:16) The choice is yours. Your arms are too short to continue to box with God.
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