Yesterday I finished reading a book and started a college class. The book’s topic was a history of the Cadbury Chocolate Empire, “Chocolate Wars” by Deborah Cadbury. The class I am enrolled in “Old Testament Survey”. I have funny reasons for selecting the things I read and my activities. The book was picked up for the title and purchased because of one four word phrase I read while flipping trough the pages. The class was only enrolled in to insure the class “made” thereby helping a young friend obtain a few credit hours and ultimately graduate. Two disparate activities, two completely unrelated life choices, one ending, one beginning. Yet one single message was provided for the reader and student this night.
It is a curious thing to me when life events appear to conspire to repeat lessons, reinforce thinking. and retrain habits.
Little back ground and poor retelling from the book. Cadbury founders were Quaker and they believed that through the profits of their business they should bless others particularly their employees and community. The Cadburys enriched the lives of their workers beyond anything you can imagine. Through benefits unheard of in their day, through health care, housing, community development, recreational areas, and living wages the world around the Cadburys was changed for the better. Other chocolatiers including Milton Hersey imitated their type of philanthropy developing entire communities for those in need. From orphanages to simple summer retreats for poor children, from education to living standards. People’s lives were changed as these men shared their wealth, their blessings, their excess. These men worked very hard not to profit but to better the lives of those around them. The Cadburys acted as if it really wasn’t their wealth, only something loaned to them to be shared with others. They became conduits.
Tonight’s first college lesson included a quick overview of Abraham. God poured blessings in to Abraham’s life, those blessings flowed through Abraham to others, including present day Christians. Abraham was just the conduit. “Through Abraham the world would be blessed”. “The world” meaning much more than Abraham could have dreamt. Our professor continued with that theme stating that is how God works, through his people. The professor likened Abraham to an open PVC pipe. What Abraham received from God was to be passed on to others. My mind quickly added the following scripture….
Jesus said “.. freely you have received, freely give.” Mathew 10:8
1 Peter 4:10 “…use whatever gift you have received to serve others”
even Zachariah 8:13 says “….so I will save you and you will be a blessing”
Learning that my calling, God’s purpose for my life, my goal is not likely the persuasion of others to my belief, my purpose may be to simply share what I have where I am. That might be; time, compassion, forgiveness, money, or peace, what ever I have in abundance. I can’t tell you if a book is well written or not. I chose books by covers and obscure passages. I have the impression this one may not be a shining example of written language but I can tell you I have never had a history book cause me so much guilt or reflection. I am no book critic, no literary scholar… I haven’t been a avid reader. I find that I skip stuff that might be uninteresting, like introductions, prologs, and epilogs. That makes the quote I discovered even more intriguing as this time it was in the epilog that I found a partial sentence, a four word phrase, that caused me to purchase a book. Describing one mission work of the Quakers the author quoted these words…
“a ministry of presence”
My lesson this night from two separate sources “Where the faithful go people should be blessed…”
Lord make me a PVC pipe!
David
