Psalm 147:1-11
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre.
He covers the heavens with clouds,
prepares rain for the earth,
makes grass grow on the hills.
He gives to the animals their food,
and to the young ravens when they cry.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
(Psalm 147:7-11)
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
(1 Corinthians 12:7)
In a pivotal scene in Ford v Ferrari, the Academy Award nominated film, Matt Damon’s character, Carroll Shelby, takes Henry Ford II on a crazy-fast car ride through his test track. Barriers are barely missed, corners are cut with screeching tires, the audience’s heart rate accelerates through each gear Shelby passes. The entire time, the son of the great Henry Ford is crying out loud for his life. When the car finally comes to a stop, Ford is crying, bawling his eyes out like a little baby. Matt Damon plays this scene masterfully, showing true discomfort at the uncontrollable tears of this man who is also his boss. The tears keep coming long enough that the audience starts to get uncomfortable too. Here’s the rest of that scene:
[Henry II starts crying after Shelby gives him a ride in the Ford GT40 Mk II]
Carroll Shelby: Mr. Ford? Are you okay?
[Henry II continues to sob]
Carroll Shelby: Mr. Ford? You all right?
Henry Ford II: I had no idea.
[pause]
Henry Ford II: I had no idea. I wish my daddy… He were alive to see this. To feel this.
While the audience was led to believe (again, by Damon’s masterful acting in this scene) to believe this man was crying just because he was scared, we come to realize that he’s crying because automotive engineering has now achieved what his father, the great Henry Ford, could’ve only imagined. We, the audience, realize that this man has been living under a great shadow and that now he’s feeling like he’s made his mark too. It’s touching.
Well, it’s touching for everyone except God. Because God’s “delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner.” Talk about a real buzzkill for a movie based on horsepower and speed! While these two scenes – the one from the film and the other from the psalm – are at odds with one another, I invite you to hold them in tension because this is often the tension of our life.
On the one hand, we have some innate desire to work hard, do our best, excel beyond all measure, reach speeds unseen, accomplish accomplishments previously not accomplished. On the other hand, we have a God who cares more about caring for us than what we care about. The question, then, is do we allow this to be a buzzkill on all our aspirations?
No, with some nuance.
We are still to strive and seek and try and excel, but not for the sake of getting out from underneath the shadow of our pasts – as with Henry Ford II – but rather because we have been called to a common life together and each of us, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, have been given gifts for the common good. This is why we try so hard. We strive, not for our own glory, but for the love of our community.
Oftentimes, you will see an athlete point toward God after hitting a homerun or scoring a touchdown. Tim Tebow made this into such a phenomenon that they called his post-TD kneeling prayer “Tebowing” and young athletes around the country began to imitate it, just like young athletes a generation before kept their tongues wagging out because Michael Jordan did that. Yet, if the Psalm is to be believed, then Tebow would’ve done better to not kneel and thank God for running faster and stronger than the other guys, but instead to run over and point toward his teammates on the sideline as a way of saying, “Here’s is my gift for the common good of our team.”
I hope that each of you strives and succeeds in ways you can’t believe possible and I hope this not because your worth or value is based on your success – no, your value is in the fact that God cares for you – but rather because when you succeed at using the gifts God’s given you, you succeed for our common life together, for the common good. Amen.
