Second Best
                                                        
                                                              

The sign above says:  “Learn to fly here.”  Notice the airplane in the tree.  American Aviation may be a perfectly good flight school, but either the airplane or the sign needs to go.  

Here’s another example in this humorous story: 

Two preachers whose churches were across the road from each other were out pounding a sign in the ground that read:

                                                                The end is near
                                                        Turn yourself around now
                                                              Before it’s too late!

As a car sped past them, the driver leaned out his window and yelled, “You religious nuts!”
From the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash.  One preacher turned to the other and said, “Do you think maybe the sign should just say: 

                                                               Bridge out ahead!

Often in our attempt to communicate, we sometimes lose the message with incoherent advertising.

One, we make the mistake that everyone understands the message.  Two, we assume that we are presenting a clear message.  Three, we misunderstand our objective.  Four, we intellectualize the difference, add our own interpretation and accept the compromise.

We know the real thing when we see it.  We want the genuine but sometimes stop short and settle for second best.   Accepting the pure word is always best.

Such was the case years ago when I was flying my brother’s Cessna 172 to Charleston, S.C.  I knew I would need fuel before returning home and planned to stop short of my destination at an unimproved airport (grass field) where fuel would be cheaper.  I would use my pilot skills and execute a short soft field type of approach and landing. 

In retrospect, grass runways are charted as unimproved airports.  I intellectually knew the difference and looking down on the field, the grass runway looked fine.  But my touchdown and landing on the rough dirt path was more like a controlled crash.  After two surprise bounces, I got serious, saved the landing, and fortunately, nothing got bent (except a wheel cover).
And, I would face that rough surface again on takeoff.

Although the airdrome symbol on the FAA aviation chart advertised that fuel was available, in a sense, the rough field made it almost inaccessible.  To save fuel cost, I had stopped short and settled for second best.

Sometimes the same thing can be said about our spiritual lives.  From a distance, we look fine but when we get down to it, the unimproved dirt paths we travel show the great need for improved surfaces.  In a sense, the Holy Spirit is available but He is inaccessible in our compromise.

Perhaps we all need a time in our spiritual lives when we decide we will not compromise for second best.  We suffer from a new age, non-biblical thought that says that we should not take ourselves so seriously.  We hear it in sermons and read it in popular Christian writing.  But I don’t find this idea anywhere in the Bible, in the Acts of the Apostles or the Words of Jesus.  However I do find it easy to live on past platitudes and easy attitudes without much thought.

I remember a song from the 1970s written by Charles Thomas Studd, missionary to China.  It said:

“Only One Life, ‘twill soon be past . . . Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

What really grips me in the entire text of this song is its internal personal theme without mentioning specific good works.  Here is the song in its entirety.

Only one life, yes only one, Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in 'that day' my Lord to meet, And stand before His Judgment seat;
Only one life,' twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.

Only one life, the still small voice, Gently pleads for a better choice
Bidding me selfish aims to leave, And to God's holy will to cleave;
Only one life, 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.

Only one life, a few brief years, Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;
Each with its clays I must fulfill, living for self or in His will;
Only one life, 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.

When this bright world would tempt me sore, When Satan would a victory score;
When self would seek to have its way, Then help me Lord with joy to say;
Only one life, 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.

Give me Father, a purpose deep, In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep;
Faithful and true what e'er the strife, Pleasing Thee in my daily life;
Only one life, 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.

Oh let my love with fervor burn, And from the world now let me turn;
Living for Thee, and Thee alone, Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;
Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one, Now let me say, “Thy will be done”;
And when at last I'll hear the call, I know I'll say “’twas worth it all”;
Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.