Humility in Memory

Scripture References: Psalm 78:39; 1 Peter 1:16-18

Someone wrote the editors of a leading magazine asking if Tom Selleck’s image was real or celluloid. He seemed so unaffected with stardom, but was he? He seemed so down-to-earth, but was it a charade? Judging from interviews with his friends, the editors replied, Selleck remained modest and unassuming. Unlike many stars, He remembered the rejection and failure of his earlier days (he couldn’t even win a date on the Dating Game),and he realized that success in show business is frequently the result of luck, not talent.

Egotism is as natural to us as the tango to Argentina. Cultivating the memory of a less fortunate past will keep today’s felicity in perspective. Our present fame or prosperity offers no excuse for arrogance. Prominence and abundance are no more permanent than obscurity and indigence. We can be forgiven our ignorance of an unknown future, but not the amnesia of past experiences.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.