Ezra's Fulcrum

I never had a son. And since it is difficult for a writer to convey, and for a reader to interpret, emotion in the written word, I need to tell you that I say that with no sense of regret or melancholy or sadness whatsoever. Because if I know anything about genetics, any son of mine would grow up, like me, skinny and geeky and beat up a lot for no reason. I wouldn't wish that on any kid, much less my own. So God in His wisdom gave me two daughters, for whom I am eternally grateful, and gave the sons to my brother the jock. And since I am now fifty years old, it is, and hopefully shall remain a moot point. But if I was 20 years younger and having a son, I think I would like to name him Ezra. I know, if he wasn't going to get beat up already, this certainly wouldn't help. And I am pretty sure Marcia would never let it happen. But remember, this is all hypothetical anyway. So why Ezra? Not yet. First a little bit about the second part of what I admit is one of my more obscure titles to date.

OK, closed book test. No Google, no Wikipedia, don't even Ask Jeeves. Think back to third grade, and try to list as many "simple machines" as you can. I'll give you a minute...how many did you come up with? You probably did better than me. I only remembered the pulley and the lever. Wikipedia helped me out with the inclined plane, the wheel & axle, the wedge and the screw.

For the purposes of this post, I hope to refresh our memories about the lever in particular. I don't remember much, but I do remember that the triangle thing in the middle that allows the lever to go up and down and provides its power and usefulness, is called the fulcrum. As I recall, it looks something like this:

So we have Ezra (not necessarily the guy in the overalls) and we have a fulcrum.

Now let's try and put them together.

My Daily Reading Bible recently took me through the book of Ezra, where I came upon the following new life verse (among many) for me:

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
-Ezra 7:10

I love this verse. Ezra set his heart to do three things: to study, to do and to teach. I think the key to this verse is the middle of the three, the fulcrum of this lever if you will, those four little words, "and to do it". I couldn't Google this image, since it exists only in my head, and Google isn't that good yet (but don't think they're not trying), so I have tried to recreate a crude approximation of what I see in my mind's eye, via some good old fashioned HTML:

Study_____________________________Teach Do

What Ezra has set his heart to do is precisely what I desire for myself. To study and to teach the word of God. But without the "Do" fulcrum in the middle, the effort expended on the one end in studying will fail to lift up those on the other end through teaching. To study and not to do is worthless. Scripture is permeated with this truth.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does."
-James 1:22-25

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."
-Luke 6:46-49

A house without a foundation falls flat. Like a lever without a fulcrum.

Study. Do. Teach.