How Do You Measure Up?

 

In Washington D.C., the Bureau of Standards houses the perfect standard for all measurements for the United States. Every weight and every length used in the United States is supported by a carefully guarded strict standard. Stored in the bureau one can find the perfect inch, the perfect foot, the perfect yard, the perfect gallon, the perfect pint, and the perfect pound. In addition, one would find copies of all the metric measures (e.g. millimeter, milligram, milliliter, etc.). Every weight, length, and volume is judged by those standards which are never allowed to change for any reason.

In Biblical times the standard measure of distance, or length, was the cubit. One cubit, using a typical adult male, was the measured distance from one’s elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about eighteen inches. The problem with that way of measuring is that one man’s cubit will differ from another’s. To solve that dilemma, one man’s arm became the standard for each construction project. When measuring really mattered, reeds would be cut to the length of his cubit for everyone to use while measuring because it was impossible for the “standard man” to be in multiple places at once.

Have you ever considered what your life would be like if it were being measured-up at the end of each day? Imagine what it would be like if your “batting average” in life was figured out at the end of every day and the next morning it appeared in bold newspaper headlines for everyone to see. Professional baseball players suffer that every day. How did Alex DeGoti do yesterday? What’s his average now? How would you like that? “Yesterday the batting average of T.W. Bonham dropped another five points as he went hitless four times at bat. He struck out on his visit to the hospital, flied out twice in his attempt to find volunteers for that important job that needs doing before the seminar next week, and his Sunday school lesson was a popup to the infield.” Try it yourself. “Yesterday, Jon Doe’s slump continued as he went 0 for 4. He lost a contract before noon, chewed out his secretary immediately afterwards, grounded out with his teenage son’s request for help, and was thrown out of the game for arguing with his wife.” The fact is that no one keeps up-to-date batting averages on us, and in the best of ways, I suppose that’s a good thing. But it also means that we can utterly stop growing without even knowing it. Nobody is measuring us. Nobody is timing us. Nobody is keeping the averages current. One day life slows down, we look around and suddenly realize that we’ve become stagnant. One person put it this way, “Growth is the only evidence of life; whoever isn’t busy growing is busy dying.” (Mirror, Mirror on the wall - never lies.)

[Philippians 3:7-16] Paul wrote: “…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me …Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” We are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). God’s Word must become for our lives what the Bureau of Standards is for weights, lengths, and volumes. It shows us how God would have us to live the ideal life. The real difficulty is that we often try to establish our own standards derived from our desires, our feelings, and our failings. “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16). Each of us should be able to say with the old cowboy, “I ain’t what I ought to be; I ain’t what I want to be; and I ain’t what I’m gonna be; but thank God for this one thing – I ain’t what I used to be!