Who won last night’s epic contest between the Chiefs and Eagles? True confession: my absolute deadline for my weekly post was long before yesterday’s kick-off. The battle on the field is now after-the-fact history, but another competition from Super Bowl LIX was already in play, before Taylor settled into her $2 million suite in the Caesars Superdome. Who would those winners be?

There were only two teams facing-off on the gridiron, but nearly 50 corporate giants went head-to-head on the Fox broadcast in the ad segments interspersed in the game coverage. Thirty-second ads were going for $7 million; the top category on your screen was snack foods, followed by beer brewers; the rest of the commercial wanna-bes got in line behind them.

One fan favorite – every year – is the Budweiser Clydesdales. The baby big-horse from this year’s ad will probably be a favorite when they unpack the Viewers’ Choice awards after the game.

Missing from America’s all-star consumer brands bowl is one of the UK’s favorites: Guinness – producers of stout – a family brand birthed in Ireland, with a pretty remarkable story.

Arthur Guinness was the patriarch of the enterprise that continues today. The family’s move into brewing was part of a sense of social mission. Long before awareness of micro-organisms and their presence in untreated water, the consumption of alcohol was the practical avoidance of the dysentery that would otherwise derail health. Cheap booze was the popular solution, and it had made Ireland a small country with a big drinking problem.

Guinness’ intent was to intervene with a viable solution: a lower-alcohol content ale that would allow hydration without inebriation. Their brewery was founded to address a social cause.

Then, in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Guinness heard visiting preacher John Wesley deliver a message that caught his heart. In that era, John and Charles Wesley – as well as George Whitefield – had become powerful voices for biblical faith, across the United Kingdom.

John Wesley’s frequent refrain to businessmen with a biblical faith was transformative:

“Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can. Your wealth is evidence of a calling from God, so use your abundance for the good of mankind.” 

That’s timeless counsel that still rings true today.

Along with his attention to a social malady – the rampant alcoholism that had become the rage across the British Isles – came a newfound but biblical foundation that he as a businessman could embrace: his financial performance was not just a commercial reality, but evidence of a spiritual gift that enabled his Kingdom calling.

From that point in the late 18^th Century, the Guinness family became historic standouts in both business pursuits and spiritual initiatives. Innumerable direct descendants of Arthur Guinness have found their life pursuits in pastoral and missions careers.

Example: a century after Arthur’s life and launch of the family’s brewing dynasty, Henry Guinness was regarded as one of the best preachers of the 19^th Century. He became increasingly aware of the significance of Bible prophecy as a powerful part of the body of Scripture. He became deeply committed to the place of Israel in God’s plans for history and eternity.

Henry was convinced that the Ottoman Empire – which had occupied and controlled the Holy Land since 1517 – would collapse in 1917, making way for the repatriation of the Jews to their God-given homeland. Lord Arthur Balfour – British Prime Minister from 1902-1905 – took an interest in Henry’s sense of biblical prophetic truth. In 1917 – as England’s Foreign Secretary – he issued the Balfour Declaration which ultimately facilitated the reestablishment of the modern State of Israel.

Arthur Guinness became an historic testament to God’s timeless truth:

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments” — Deuteronomy 7:9

What are you doing today that could result in the echo of Eternity through centuries of family generations who will come behind you?

Bob Shank

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