[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during March 2021]
Rudyard Kipling was a prolific English story-writer and poet in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period. An overseas upbringing and schooling in England, a combination of circumstances with which I can identify, gave him a rich diversity of experience and perspective from which to draw both his characters and their settings.
Kipling represents an age which is no longer in favour with those who want their history to appear politically correct but many of his works are still widely read. He was the author of ‘The Jungle Book’ which relates the story of Mowgli, ‘The Just-so Stories’ which explains how the elephant got his trunk, and he also wrote emotive poems such as ‘The Road to Mandalay’ and ‘If-‘. The final verse of ‘If-‘ reads:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
The poem is often quoted in a motivational context, to encourage people to develop their personal qualities and work towards a better world.
God has also written His version of ‘If’. It opens with a question addressed to Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, but one which is still very relevant:
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? [Genesis 4 v7 NIVUK]
God used Solomon’s experiences to add some more advice:
My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
[Proverbs 1 v10, ch 2 v1-5 NIVUK]
Perhaps what is less obvious is that the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount can be redrafted in a similar format:
If you are poor in spirit …
If you comfort those who mourn …
If you are meek …
If you hunger and thirst for righteousness …
If you are merciful …
If you are pure in heart …
If you are a peacemaker …
If you are persecuted because of righteousness …
If you are insulted, persecuted and lied about for my sake …
… Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven
Both sets of advice can offer guidance in the various circumstances of life but God’s version offers an additional, eternal, benefit. A final piece of advice, from the apostle Paul to his protégée Timothy:
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
[2 Timothy 2 v1 NIVUK]
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
Very heart warming and encouraging faith.
Thanks Steve, really good