I had dinner with John Maxwell the famous leadership author who has sold some 22 million books and lectures and trains executives from Fortune 100 companies all over the world. He told me a story about an elderly grandmother who loved to play Monopoly. When she played she was transformed from a sweet kindly granny that everybody loved, to a ruthless – go for the throat – win at all costs player.
She was very good at the game and whenever she came for a visit she took great delight in annihilating all of her opponents, especially her grandkids. It was amazing to see her transform from a sweet adorable grandma to a power grabbing maniac that lusted for control of Park Ave.
So a new kid moved to the neighborhood who was a genius at playing Monopoly and he became friends with the grandson who was being routinely terrorized by his granny on her visits. The youngster told his new friend about being thrashed and the “boy wonder” promptly took him under his tutelage and over a period of weeks taught him winning strategies that made him into a formidable monopoly player.
Soon enough old granny came for a visit and of course wanted to play some Monopoly, only this time things were different. The youngster deftly and thoroughly routed her and gave her the “thumping of her life, soundly defeating her at her own game with a viciousness that exceeded her own.
Surprisingly she took it all in stride and after the game had ended she looked down at her beaming young grandson’s smug demeanor and offered him some sage advice. She softly said, “Just remember Mikey, after the game is over all of the pieces go back in the box”.
I met a man named Ken Mansfield who was the U.S. director and manager of all sales for Apple Record Company, which of course included the Beatles during their glory years. Ken rode that unbelievable Beatles wave and what a ride it was. He made hundreds of millions of dollars and experienced the craziness of that infamous sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle that was so surrealistic that most cannot even imagine the madness of it all.
Proverbially what went up eventually came crashing down and when the Beatles disintegrated, Ken lost virtually everything, (but his life). He went from owning a fabulous mansion sitting on over a mile and a quarter of the most beautiful stretches of beach in the world along California’s Big Sur region, to abject poverty almost overnight.
As so often happens, when the cash disappeared, so did the laughing, happy-go-lucky entourage of “good friends”, and before he knew it no one would even take his calls anymore. The private jets, yachts, red carpet parties, gorgeous women, cocaine, glitz and glitter all went back into the box. To make matters worse Ken got an incurable terminal form of cancer and it looked as though his life was going back in the box too, thus completing the cycle.
Ken had traveled to India with the Beatles during their meditation kick and had ended up with his own personal guru who offered little in comfort for his despair. He went down the toilet in a downward spiral and it seemed that there would be no happy ending.
Fortunately for Ken he met a fabulous Christian girl who led him to know and love Jesus Christ. Ken now follows Jesus and in fact has joined the fulltime ministry; his personal guru is no longer around, his cancer is in remission, and his life is fabulous. He truly knows peace, joy, and love for the first time and he realizes that they only come from having a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Ken will tell his story at our Worldwide Ministry special service on the second Sunday of January, (the 12th ). You won’t want to miss the original Beatles footage of him traveling the world with them and the beautiful people and his articulate recap of his fascinating journey. I urge you to put this on your calendar now and come meet this interesting man of God!
Ken’s life story is a dramatic real life illustration of what old granny was telling her young grandson. The Bible teaches that we are appointed a time to die and after that the judgment. All that has been taken out of the box will be put back in the box and we will face God naked and alone. We will have no material thing, no fancy title, no entourage, and no one will give a flip about big mansions, how many records were sold, or who you knew. When we face God and offer an accounting of our lives, all that will matter is what our relationship with Jesus has been like.
That can be a happy time if we have loved Christ and followed Him, or it can be a terrorizing time of trying to explain why we rejected God’s only Son’s sacrifice. The Bible tells us that old King Solomon was the wisest and richest man who will ever live. He advised us to think of death often, (Eccl 7:4 – “A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.”) If he were here today he might say, “Just remember at the end of the game everything goes back in the box, (EXCEPT what you have done for God’s kingdom)” . . . Selah . . .
Old Job understood this concept and eloquently stated the case far better than I. Have a great weekend and I personally urge you to go to Honey Lake Church, (or somewhere) this Sunday and pray that when all of the pieces go back into the box, God will smile at you and say, “Well done my good and faithful servant; well played.
Job 1:21
He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave.
The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the
name of the LORD!”
December 13, 2013 – Click here to listen