Moving From Time To Eternity

Read the following quote and tell me of who was this said?

"There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen . . . [and] now he belongs to the ages."

One of the Caesars? No. Napoleon? No. Alexander the Great? No. Eisenhower? Patton? MacArthur . . . or some earlier military strategist like Grant or Lee or Pershing? No, none of the above. How about Rockne or Lombardi? No. Or Luther? Calvin? Knox? Wesley? Spurgeon? Again, the answer is no.

For someone to say this statement it must have been someone influential, persuasive, and admired, don’t you think so?

When he was 7 years old, his family was forced out of their home because of a legal technicality. He had to work to help support them.

At age 9, while still a backward, shy little boy, his mother died.

At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education was not good enough.

At 23, he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. Three years later his business partner died, leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay.

At 28, after developing a romantic relationship with a young lady for four years, he asked her to marry him. She said no. An earlier youthful love he shared with a lovely girl ended in heartache at her death.

At 37, on his third try, he was finally elected to Congress. Two years later he ran again and failed to be reelected. I should add it was about this time he had what some today would call a nervous breakdown.

At 41, adding additional heartache to an already unhappy marriage, his 4-year-old son died.

The next year he was rejected for Land Officer.

At 45, he ran for the Senate again and lost.
Two years later, he was defeated for nomination for Vice President.

At 49, he ran for the Senate again . . . and lost again.

Add to this an endless barrage of criticism, misunderstanding, ugly and false rumors, and deep periods of depression and you realize it's no wonder he was snubbed by his peers and despised by multitudes, hardly the envy of his day.

At 51, however, he was elected President of the United States . . . but his second term in office was cut short by his assassination. As he lay dying in a little rooming house across from the place where he was shot, a former detractor (Edwin Stanton) spoke the following quote mentioned above. By now you may know it was spoken of the most inspirational and highly regarded president in American history. Abraham Lincoln.

When we think of greatness, success, and great leadership, we imagine great speeches that dazzle the heart because of how things are said, rather than on what is being said. We also think of cool wardrobes and a look of sophistication. But we often do not connect the dots of -- bitter hardship, unfair and undeserved abuses, loneliness and loss, humiliating failures, debilitating disappointments, agony beyond comprehension suffered in hard fought match in the boxing ring of life, while climbing from bottom to top.

Listen, no one deserves the right to lead without his or her fair share of bumps and bruises, pain, heartache and failures along the way. For those who get to lead without such things are actually intruders who got there with the help of a bias media and their own constituency.

When will we learn that anyone who is worth following has in some way paid their dues in life? They have come through the fire having been melted, reshaped and refined. As Paul once said, they bear on their bodies “the brand-marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6:17).

America is following a man who has no experience with the private sector, with operating his own business, with running anything except being a community organizer. And for the last year it shows!

On the positive side, we the people get to go through the fire of pain and cleansing, so we can emerged, melted, reshaped and refined. The next time we get an opportunity to vote we will be that much smarter, wiser and experienced. We will have paid our dues. We will have learned our lesson. We will not vote for a candidate who knows how to talk, but has no experience to back up what he says. We will look for a man or woman who has the qualifying marks that fit the job. We will go to the polls much more educated, more determined not to be duped, and more refined through the lessons learned.

Solomon once wrote, “Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, when he has no sense” (Prov. 17:16)? In other words, it is foolish to think that one can buy wisdom. Instead, wisdom comes with experience, having been tested and tried in the valleys of life.

Someone who has gone to a reputable university and paid for his or her education (or had someone else paid for it) does not make a person wise after graduation.

Experience in life does; being sincerely teachable; and talking less and doing more.
These things not only apply when electing someone to public office, but to all areas of life – marriage, business, and church office, to name a few.

Only such people like Abraham Lincoln are able to move from time to eternity and end up belonging to the ages.