Leslie B. Flynn told a delightful little story about how some children worked long and hard on their own little cardboard shack. It was to be a special spot - a clubhouse - where they could meet in solemn assembly or just laugh, play games, and fool around. As they thought long and hard about their rules, they came up with three rather perceptive ones:
1. Nobody act big.
2. Nobody act small.
3. Everybody act medium.
Those are really good rules, and I believe they have scriptural foundations. I want to look at each in turn, and commend all of them to you as rules for living. These are the ways we should act:
Experts have to prove their theory in practice. Charlie Brown is walking along the street rewinding his kite-string and following the string to his downed kite. As he goes he is waxing the expert to his friend and nemesis, Lucy. He explains:
"In kite-flying the ratio of weight to sail-area is very important. This ratio is known as "Sail Loading," and it is measured in ounces per square foot. For example, a three-foot kite with a sail area of four and one-half square feet should weigh about two or three ounces."
Lucy observes, "You know a lot about kites, don’t you, Charlie Brown?" He replies, "Yes, I think I can say that I do." By this time the string has led them to the mouth of a storm drain - where the string disappears. In the last frame Sally asks, "Then why is your kite down the sewer?"
This is not just a comic strip situation. Comic strips often reflect what is true in life. Centuries ago the political philosopher Aristippus, by paying court to the tyrant Denys, had acquired a comfortable living and looked down upon his less prosperous fellow sages with no small degree of contempt. Seeing Diogenes washing some vegetables, he said to him disdainfully: "If you would only learn to flatter King Denys, you would not have to be washing lentils. Diogenes retorted in the same tone: "And you, if you had only learned to live on lentils, would not have to flatter King Denys."