Me and The Brady’s
Two great occurrences took place in 1970… I was born, and “The Brady Bunch” launched its first season in Prime Time. I’m still around… and so are the Brady’s. Although, my guess is that a few more people know about the Brady Bunch than know about me. In fact, I bet that if I asked you to describe at least one episode, you could do it.
Not Successful?
According to Wikipedia, “The Brady Bunch” ran five seasons from 1970-1974, and it was never a successful show as far as the numbers reflected. However, it ran long enough to cross the threshold to be put into syndication. And since September 1975 when it launched its first re-runs in syndication, it has aired somewhere in the United States every day.
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For the record, that is 42 years… running 365 days per year without fail. But it wasn’t successful enough to keep on the air. Think about that. At the time, it didn’t appear to have staying power. Was that ever a mis-read?!
My kids are watching it on DVD for the first time, and they are hooked despite not knowing what a rotary dial telephone or a reel-to-reel tape recorder are. They laugh at the funny scenes. They get the point of the parental teaching moments.
Whose Standard?
In I Samuel 16:7, God points out that Samuel should let God do the picking and choosing about who will be successful. And He lets Samuel know that He (God) doesn’t look at people the same way other people do… He looks at the heart and not outward appearances.
So, if you’re reading this today and you don’t feel you qualify as a success… let me ask you this… Whose standard are you using to measure yourself?
I believe it was Albert Einstein who said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” Sometimes we allow ourselves to be measured by the wrong measuring stick.
But God uses a different measure than people do. Live your life by His measure. Who knows? You may be a success in syndication.
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