6th March 2015

When Mick Fleetwood was just a little drummer boy, his father gave him some sage advice: “The act of doing good, of making something that served the good of everyone in and of itself, was more important than getting the credit for it.” It was good advice, and advice that Fleetwood followed, allowing others to take the credit, and content to sit behind his drum kit and keep them all in time for the greater good. The great irony is that when some Buckingham-Nicks-McVie riff is played on the radio, it is his name that is remembered.

Mick Fleetwood had unwittingly tapped into some ancient wisdom. “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth”, and “God gives grace to the humble.” It is one of the lovely paradoxes that flows deeply in the bedrock of this world. The less you seek the credit, the more you find the honour. But it is a wisdom that few find, because humility is such an unlikely path. 

Too often we strive for Rome, when Nazareth is a wiser place to be. Too often we make sure our name is spelled correctly by the reporters, when the misspelling ‘Chrestus’ will do. Too often in our living and thoughts of dying we seek for front page coverage, when a small obituary notice in the Empire Times will suffice: ‘Jesus of Nazareth. Suffered under Pontius Pilate. Crucified, dead, and buried.’ Humility before honour. It’s the beat of a different drum.

DM 6^th March 2015