Positive cultural significance does not lie in wealth or power, but rather, in character and goodness of the individual.
It was the brilliant Albert Einstein who reminded us that, “True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness.” I think we need to hear more about this subject in our present-day culture.
I have always been intrigued with the dedicated life of an American businessman by the name of Dwight L. Moody. My first introduction to this man’s significance was through an old “brown-tone” photograph that hung in the living room of the home of my maternal grandparents. It was a picture of Mr. Moody speaking to a huge group of people, and it was my understanding that my “grandpa” had heard Dwight L. Moody speak when “grandpa” was just a young boy. I was also fascinated with the story that during World War II, the Liberty Ship “SS Dwight L. Moody” was named in his honor.
Moody was born in 1837 in the little town of Northfield. Massachusetts. His father died at an early age of 41, leaving his widow in poverty . . . and a large mortgage on the home.
The creditors grabbed everything they could, including the family’s stack of firewood. Mrs. Moody tried to keep her family of nine children not only together, but together in the little local Sunday School. It’s said they were so poor that the boys would carry their shoes and stockings in their hands on their way to the church to keep them from wearing out, and putting them back on only when they were in sight of the church.
By the time Dwight was 17, he had become a successful shoe salesman for Holton’s Shoe Store. Moody’s life notably changed after his Sunday School teacher dropped by the shoe store one day and invited Dwight to become a true follower of Jesus Christ. Dwight accepted. Later, he became actively involved in the Plymouth Congregational Church in Chicago. As a businessman, he began renting the church pews and filling them up with men and women whom he had invited to church.
By the time Moody was 30, he decided to sell his business and devote all his time to Christian work. He traveled to Dublin, Ireland, where on a bench in a public park, he had a meeting with a man named Henry Varley; (PS: In our extensive traveling in Ireland, Anna Marie and I actually located that same park and visited it).
During Moody’s and Varley’s conversation, Mr. Henry Varley said to Dwight Moody:
“The world has yet to see what God will do with, and for, and through, and in, and by, one man who is Fully Consecrated to Him!”
Moody’s life would never be the same again! As he reflected on Henry Varley’s words, the simple but profound light broke in upon his mind and warmed his heart:
He said, “a man”. He did not say, a great man, or a learned man, nor a smart man, but simply, a man. I am a man, and it lies within the man himself whether he will or will not make that entire and full consecration: “I Will Try My Utmost to Be That Man!”
Dwight Moody went from there to become one of the greatest influences for goodness and righteousness for all time. It is said that people would stand in the street all day, in he rain, just to get in to hear D. L. Moody speak. He addressed as many as 30,000 people at one time in Edinburgh and as many as 40,000 in Glasgow – and that was in the days before there were fancy video and audio projection systems.
It is estimated that no less than 100 million people heard the simple message of the possibilities of goodness and righteousness from the lips of Dwight L. Moody. His impact changed his culture.
Human significance does not necessarily lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.
When righteousness pours out of your heart, goodness spreads out into the whole world.