Deputy Fife

This will date me, but some of us are old enough to remember Deputy Barney Fife from the old Andy Griffith show. Barney was a wiry and nervous little character played by the late Don Knotts. Deputy Fife was famous for unsolicited advice and expertise, ("Nip it! Nip it in the bud!"), and pretending to be greater than he really was. Barney always made a bigger deal out of himself and situations than either really were. Deputy Fife became a stereotype for over-inflated egos and sense of self.

Of course for Barney to be funny in pretending greatness, we who watched Andy Griffith had to have a clear sense of what greatness is. We knew and we know what it takes to be great, whether that greatness is expressed in success, popularity, leadership, appearances, or whatever. We're taught to strive for greatness and well we should. Some achieve greatness, some don't, and some live in pretentious illusions of greatness, like Barney Fife.

However, the more we allow the one called Jesus to inform our lives, the more our life definitions will be broadened, stretched, challenged, and sometimes changed. For a real shocker on Jesus' view of greatness, find a Bible in print or on-line, and locate the gospel of Mark, the 9th chapter of that book, verses 33 through 39.

More on this in the next post. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.