if you run with the dogs, you will catch fleas

Let me begin this entry into my blog by stating the painfully obvious- there is something wrong with the American psyche and it goes much deeper than a professional athlete who has his own dog fight gambling ring. The summation of the depth of the problem is not encompassed by the tragic story of Michael Dwayne Vick.

But it is the latest most obvious illustration of it.

Sports, cable and major news outlets are obsessing over this modern version of Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. We shake our heads in awe that an athlete with the potential and future of Vick could kiss it all good-bye for the "thrill" of gambling on which dog can tear the other dog's throat out. I have never really understood the gambling addiction, but I suppose it is the result of the adrenalin one feels as he sits on the razor edge between ruin and fortune. The edge ran out last week for this one time sports hero, who was once revered as a role model for struggling urban youth.

Last week he went from hero to zero. but it didn't happen overnight. Michael Vick, like the rest of us, is the product of his choices.

This story has already been hashed and rehashed from every possible angle and I don't intend to go very far down that road, but do want to reflect on the issue from a spiritual perspective by asking what are deeper macro issues involved here?

1. Just because a man has fortune it doesn't mean he has wealth. There is much more to wealth than just money or fame. The word "wealth" in scripture is related to the word "weight" or "worth". A man of weight is a man of substance. A man's weightiness is related to the value he carries not in his bling but in the substance of his character. The lesson to kids who look up to athletes like Vick is that there are many things money can't buy, and character is not something you can buy back with multi million dollar contracts.

Character is earned. But it is never too late to start earning it.

One only has to contrast the inspiring speech of another football hero named Michael on the same week the Vick story broke. Michael Irvin, the one time bad boy of the Dallas Cowboys who in the early 90's battled drug abuse and arrest, delivered an inspiring speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony, giving thanks to God, his pastor and even leading the crowd in a brief prayer. My favorite part was when he turned to his wife:

For better or for worse, those are the vows we take before God in marriage. It's easy to live with the for better, but rarely can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandy, my beautiful wife, I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the for better. But I also gave you the for worse, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it. But through it all I experienced the depth of your love and I thank God for you. I love you for the mother that you are, the wife that you are, I love the way that you take care of our family, our daughters Myesha and Chelsea, and our sons Michael and Elijah. I thank you from a place that I can't mention, I can't even express, baby, for keeping our family together. I love you so much.

It is said that Henry Ford once sat at a table with his boyhood hero, Thomas Edison. He asked him, "what is the secret to success?"

Edison's simple answer was "good choices."

Ford thought about those words for a moment and then asked, "How does one learn to make good choices?"

"Bad choices" Edison answered.

The substance of a man's character is seen in his ability to learn from life. The Bible says

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Wisdom is making the most of every opportunity, it is asking yourself what is the VERY BEST thing for me to do in this decision, at this moment. Not "what is the easiest" or "what is the most thrilling" or "what can I get away with" but "What is the VERY BEST thing for me to do".

That is what a real man asks. That is how a real man lives. It is a man that makes those kinds of choices that becomes a man of substance, a man of wealth.

2. A second and very important lesson here from a macro perspective is that our lives will often take the shape of what we project them to be. My dad used to say "If you hang with the dogs, you will catch the fleas". That statement seems particularly poignant in light of the Michael Vick story.

There is a scene in the movie "Rocky Balboa" which particularly intrigues me. Rocky has taken a street kid under his wing and for whatever reason, wants him to go with him to pick out a dog. In what now on reflection seems like a very symbolic statement about the disenfranchised and disconnected urban teen, he asked him what dog he would pick out. The boy immediately picked out a pit bull.

Rocky, being the great student of human behavior and social philosophy that he is, points the boy to a down and out mangy old used up mutt. Together they take the dog home and give it a second chance, even as they both find their own way through the challenges of despair and fear and change. At the time it seemed random, but I now see that trip to the dog pound as central to the theme of the movie.

Rocky, as a kind of father figure and a symbol of new hope for the boy who was struggling in his relationship with his single mom, was pointing the teen away from an image he had picked up on the street. He was turning his eyes and his heart away from the powerful lure of gang culture that so many young urban teens who grow up with single moms gravitate toward, and toward the image of real manhood. It seems like such a simple, even insignificant scene in the movie- but how striking it was now that I have had time to think about it. It was as if this fomer heavy weight champion boxer who the boy revered was saying to him, "you don't have to have a pit bull to prove yourself! Your character is measured in other ways- a real man can take care of an old dog that nobody wants. A real man will take responsibility for things that no one else will take responsibility for!"

If you can see yourself as one who doesn't NEED the pit bull image, but as one who can bring an old dog to life, as one who can be just as self assured and even more so by rejecting the projected image of the negative culture around you, then maybe, just maybe, other more substantive changes can take shape. It all starts with a choice. And then other choices.

We should never forget that every man at any given time has a choice between two Adams. The first Adam was passive and irresponsible and would not lead his family and expected his own reward, not God's reward.

The second Adam by contrast, Jesus Christ, took responsibility for those things that were not his fault and rejected passivity and lead courageously and expected eternal rewards, not material, physical ones.

That is the difference. To truly "man up" is to follow the example of the second Adam, not the first.

To put it another way- a real man isn't measured by the weight of his bling or the fight in his bulldog... but by the weight of his character and the substance of his choices.