At The High Calling and the H. E. Butt Family Foundation, we rejoice that so many organizations are rising up to help Christians think about the integration of faith and work. And we are thankful to be part of an organization that has been thinking about integrated living since 1933. This early talk from the ministry of Howard E. Butt Jr., predates many of his greatest efforts including Laity Lodge. Even so, you can hear in this funny story his yearning for a deeper faith, his rejection of superficiality, and his desire for Christianity that is more than just a football suit.
TRANSCRIPT: People believe that success consists in what a man has, rather than what a man is. That success consists in externals rather than in internals.
This Christmas, our little three—and—a—half—year—old boy just had one thing he wanted for Christmas. Our little fellow is named Howard. He said, “Daddy, I want Santa Claus to bring me a football suit.”
That’s what he wanted, and he talked about a football suit morning, noon, and night, all the time, before Christmas: “I want a football suit!“ He’s just three—and—a—half—years old. And when he’s got a football and he tries to lean over and center it, he can hardly get it between his legs. He’s still just a little tiny twerp. But he wanted a football suit. And he had gone on incessantly about that football suit. So, you know what happened. He got a football suit.
He got out there Christmas morning, and there it was. We got the littlest football suit we could find in our city. But it wasn’t little enough. The other thing he got was a little cowboy holster set, and so in order to keep the football pants up, we had to put the cowboy holster set on. We were kind of an all—American and a cowboy simultaneously. But at any rate, we got all dressed up in those great big shoulder pads and that shirt that hung down and these pants that were sagging, and he got all that fixed up and he said, “O. K., Daddy, let’s go play.”
And so we got outside, and I really think he thought that all his football problems were going to be overcome by that new suit. He got out there, and he said, “Throw me a pass.” I threw him a pass, and he just wandered all over like he always does.
Well, we laughed at that, but do you know, that that’s exactly what most people are trying to do? Most people are trying to take the same old man and dress him up in the outward appearances and think that that makes the man inside over again.
(From a talk called “What is Success?” delivered in 1956 at the Greater Boston Crusade in Mechanics Hall)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”
Matthew 23:25-26
