“Who you know” goes only so far

May 17, 2009

Today's Reading: 2 Samuel 9-10 and Mark 10

I think we all know that phrase “It’s not what you know, but who you know”. And man, I hate it when I start an entry with a cliché.

Especially when it is a cliché that I really hate. I mean, if this is really true, then those people who are celebrities or in positions of power could easily be very stupid, right? It just so happens that they happen to know the right people, and they were plugged into the social pipeline.

I realize that is a pretty negative interpretation of this, but you have to admit, if this cliché is true, then education is pretty worthless. Instead, you should spend your time getting to know people and less time studying.

Take the situation with Ziba and Mephibosheth. These two people were not really anyone special. They just happened to be related to Saul. Even Mephibosheth was surprised that the king wanted to spend time with him, and you can imagine how humbled he was.

Sadly, who you know as limits. In the next chapter, David tries to send some tidings to Hanun, the son of the king of the Ammonites. Now, these two have many things in common, but Hanun sends David’s messengers back humiliated.

By the way, the disciples of Jesus knew him, and I bet they probably thought that they would get special seats at the Lord’s table. As it turned out, it was possible to get those special seats, but they come at a great price.

Yeah, sure you know these people, but that doesn’t mean that there is a free ride. I suppose we can use this to illustrate how we live in Christ. After all, we get to know Jesus when we give our life to Him, but there is still a price to pay.

As a writer, I know that more opportunities are given to those who get to know people higher up. However, there still is no free rides, you have to pay your dues. Man, I would love to get to know the president or some rich celebrity to help me with my problems, but honestly, that is a little to dues ex machina for me.

For those who don’t know this term, this is something in writing for when an ending feels tacked on. Dues ex machine translates to “God of the machine”, and refers to scenes in plays where gods will descend from above on pulleys.

Then these divine beings just solve the characters, rather than have the characters work out their own problems. With Christ, the crucifixion started it, but we still have to work it out. We know him, and we know better than to think it will come easy.