Well-Pleased

Published in the Omaha World Herald’s “From the Pulpit”

June 30, 2024
Reverend Eric L. Jay

“Well-Pleased”

In 1976 stuntman Kenny Powers attempted what would have been the longest car jump in history.  Powers and his team had been meticulously and carefully planning this jump for over four years.  Just two years prior, in 1974, the motorcycle stunt man “Evil Knievel” attempted a similar jump over the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho, which did not end well.  The jump Kenny Powers was attempting was 3xs longer than Evil Knievel’s.

The countdown was given, and Powers accelerated from 0mph to 280mph in a matter of seconds.  At the end of the ramp, Powers experienced 30 times the force of gravity as his car went nose up and the rocket propelled him 300ft in the air almost instantaneously.  The forces involved in this jump proved too much for the car and it literally unraveled in mid-air.

The rescue teams jumped into action.  While being transported to the hospital with a broken back and fading in and out of consciousness, the only words Powers continually uttered were, “Did I make it?  Is everybody pleased?”

Most of us don’t put our bodies at risk like Kenny Powers did to gain the approval or applause of other people. However, we no less put our spiritual well-being at risk when we live and make decisions, even small ones, according to the pleasures of mortal men rather than according to the Word of God.

God says in Jeremiah 17:5-7, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” 

Every heart longs to know that God is pleased with us and that when we have to stand before Him at the end of our days and give an account for our life, He will smile upon us and give us His approval.  The Good News of the Gospel is that God’s approval is not contingent upon our performing some amazing or heroic feat.  God’s approval comes only through faith in what His Son, Jesus Christ, has already accomplished for us through His death and resurrection that has atoned for our sins.  As Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who trust him.” 

It is trust in God’s grace in Jesus that brings a smile to God’s face, and not the size of the work or number of accomplishments praised by men.  As God’s Word says in 2 Corinthians 10:17-18, “‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’  For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”