The Harder You Work

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

There's some debate about who first made this statement. Ben Franklin apparently once said “Diligence is the mother of good luck," although more recently people think of legendary South African golfer Gary Player as the person who coined the phrase. That's probably how it was eventually passed along to me, as my Dad started teaching me ...

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Best Advice: Live The Questions

 

Success, he said, doesn’t just happen. It requires daily effort. And he began to list the things that went into it. This list seemed endless and impossible to achieve. He described physical, mental and emotional discipline, ranging from daily exercise to regulating passionate reactions to circumstances beyond my control. It was pouring by then, and the world outside the window was a spangled gray mass of teary rectangles, crying with me. I was overwhelmed. I wished I’d never bothered to send him a letter. He knew this, so he gave me a copy of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet:

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”

In the days that followed, I realized that maybe I would never achieve mastery of every item on the long list of advice that had been presented, but my life would only improve if I tried.

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I was quite excited to run across this today. Rilke's thought is one of my favorites, after a period of my life where I needed to learn the beauty of this kind of living.  I have it on my desk in my office.  Years ago, I tediously painted some of it on one of the walls at our church...that process sank it's truth deeply into me.  It is the voice of God to me.

Advice I Wish Someone Had Given Me for My First Job

Revel in working hard no matter what the job is. You might be smart and clever, but a solid work ethic is the main thing that'll separate you from all the other viable candidates. You may start with a bunch of grunt work, but you can't be an oversensetive employee. If you're not learning anything, it's time to look at yourself and...

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Want To Be Taken Seriously?

Want to be taken seriously?...become a better writer.

A tourist in New York asked a woman on the street, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” and she replied, “Practice, practice, practice.” The truth is, the best way to get better at anything is to do it repeatedly.

So it is with writing...

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I Asked

Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier, The Creed for the Disabled

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Thanks, Jake, for sharing this with me.

Goals

Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.

-- James Cash Penney

I was talking to a friend yesterday about his observation that this (his) generation doesn't reflect very much, they just live in the moment.  There is always a risk of over-generalizing, but I found it fascinating.  It seems to me that this is quite a by-product of our times.  In reaction to something, we have really pushed culturally the importance of 'the moment'...and perhaps succeeded.

We talked at length about this.  Thinking about the future really isn't much on the radar...almost an ambivalence to it.  Is it masking a fear -- too much to take on, to truly consider?  He also mentioned the role of consequences...or the lack of it.  'Just do it' seems to prevail (wonder where we got that one?).  Further into the conversation, he reflected on how important the realization is that one thing in life leads to another...in essence, that we have to be thinking ahead.  He is seeing a connection between his action and his opportunities...especially now that he sees something that he clearly wants (which may be the key anyway).

He has a goal...and 'the moment' doesn't need to prevail.  Fun to watch and to reflect on.

The Veil

It feels like I can't punch through a veil today.  It seems like there is a veil between me and God...like a bubble or a force-field surrounding me.  My prayers just seem to stop and vaporize.

Thinking about it, I realize that my mind keeps wandering.  Wandering to all the things that keep filling my mind, things I'm working on.  Things I need to get done.  Things that aren't right.

I am reminded of a book I read last year during Lent about simplifying the soul.  Given the above, I'm guessing my mind is too full.  I need to simplify, to stop the 'so much going on' in my life so that I can simply pray.

...so the veil can vaporize and I can just 'be' with God again.

The Goodness of Work

"...they have enjoyed earning and spending that money far more than they have enjoyed their allowance or birthday money."

The boys are not working to get good grades, or to get into a good college. They are working because working is good, in and of itself. And working can be good because it allows you to buy things, for yourself and for others, that are good. And working is good because it allows you to produce things, for yourself and others, that are good.

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The Honest Rich

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

-- G.K. Chesterton

Getting Even

Getting even...has never healed a single person.

In Medias Res

 

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Satisfied

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

-- Matthew 5:6

Deeper and Closer

What is the purpose of grace? This is what all the work of grace aims at—an even deeper knowledge of God and an ever closer fellowship with Him.

How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? He does this by exposing us to burdensome and frustrating circumstances so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason why God fills our lives with trouble and perplexities of one sort or another — it is so ensure that we shall learn to hold Him fast.

The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak, is that God spends so much of His time bringing home to us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and we dare not trust ourselves to find, or to follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we shall thankfully lean on him.  And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on Him. Therefore He takes steps to drive us out of our self-confidence and away from the things of this life to trust in Himself.

-- J.I. Packer

...for God.

Ultimately, to fast means only one thing - to be hungry - to go to the limit of that human condition which depends entirely on food and being hungry, to discover that this dependency is not the whole truth about man, that hunger itself is first of all a spiritual state and that it is in its last reality hunger for God.

-- Alexander Schmemann

...thanks, Veisa, for sharing this!

Hunger

Hunger in the midnight, hunger at the stroke of noon
Hunger in the mansion, hunger in the rented room
Hunger on the TV, hunger on the printed page
And there's a God-sized hunger underneath the laughing and the rage

-- Jackson Browne, "Looking East"

Thanks, Jim, for this one!

Ash Wednesday - Revisited

It has been said that forgiveness is among the more powerful forces in life.

Yet even its glory cannot be realized without a personal acknowledging of that which even causes it to be necessary. Ash Wednesday is a reminder of this, of who we are or of who we have become because of our sin.

It marks the beginning of another opportunity for me to recalibrate myself to what is true about me.  To pray out of it again this prayer from last year and into hope.

The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to soften our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the Spirit, to experience the hidden thirst and hunger for communion with God. The sadness of my exile, the mess I have made of my life and the brightness of God’s presence and forgiveness, the joy of the recovered desire for God, the peace of the recovered home. Such is the climate of Lenten worship.

-- Alexander Schmemann

No One Can Truly Innovate

No one can truly innovate based solely on the contents of his or her own head. You have to close your laptop, get out of your chair, and take what I call “innovation trips” to explore new places and meet people who are doing your thing differently – and maybe better.

-- Delos Cosgrove, CEO and President at Cleveland Clinic

Awareness

A leader has to be aware of other people and quite often aware for other people. That is, he anticipates what the group is thinking and feeling. Ego blocks this kind of awareness, and so does ambition, selfishness, and competitiveness - if you let them stand in the way.

-- Deepak Chopra

Be Still

Be still, and know that I am God.

-- Psalm 46:10

One of the implications here appears to be that there is an integral link between our ability to know God and our willingness to be still. Is it conversely true, that there is a part of knowing God that cannot happen unless we are willing to stop?  ...to stop our rushing around, our clamoring, our grasping for things, our busyness that we use to keep us from embracing the ache within us.

Perhaps it is our being still that affords us the opportunity for our ache to take us somewhere truly satisfying, rather than simply continuing to chase all the activity that essentially only numbs us.

A Bird & Strengthening

We so often try to strengthen ourselves by 'being strong'.  More often than not, though,  it seems we are actually strengthened when we acknowledge our weakness.

This is not the way of our culture or the imagery that is often promoted to us in realms of achievement like sports, the military, or business.  But even there the benefits of this truth are being acknowledged.

A bird flew into our garage the other day and it relentlessly tried to get out by flying its way through a window pane...to no avail.  I opened the garage door a day later thinking he had made it out somehow, only to find the bird continuing his beak-bruising efforts.  I left the garage door open again and tried to shew him towards it, but he would have none of it.

I had to go, so I just left door open...figuring eventually he would notice the much larger opening behind him and take the opportunity.

I think this is not unlike our cultural beliefs about strength...and especially that we can't afford to acknowledge our weaknesses because we have to 'be strong'.  The truth is that we actually aren't that strong.   But by acknowledging them, we gain access to an opening of True Strength that is always available to us.

...like a big garage door open behind us.  Why would we continue to believe that our only way is try harder to fly through a window pane?

...and, sometimes, all we can do is leave the garage door open and wait for others to see it.

The Need for Silence

We need silence in our lives. We even desire it. But when we enter into silence we encounter a lot of inner noises, often so disturbing that a busy and distracting life seems preferable to a time of silence. Two disturbing "noises" present themselves quickly in our silence: the noise of lust and the noise of anger. Lust reveals our many unsatisfied needs, anger or many unresolved relationships. But lust and anger are very hard to face.

How do we befriend our inner enemies lust and anger? By listening to what they are saying. They say, "I have some unfulfilled needs" and "Who really loves me?" Instead of pushing our lust and anger away as unwelcome guests, we can recognize that our anxious, driven hearts need some healing. Our restlessness calls us to look for the true inner rest where lust and anger can be converted into a deeper way of loving.

-- Henri Nouwen

Behavior and Reflection

Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The Power of Habit cites a Duke University study that says at least 45 percent of our behavior is habitual. In other words, almost half of what we do, we do unthinkingly.

    You have to create the time and space
    to reflect on how you behave.

-- Michael Bungay Stanier

Not A Reward

Love is a gift, not a reward for service!

-- Jack Winter

Marriage - Cont.

It is not your love that sustains the marriage --
but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

-- Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Marriage

This is how to make love out of a marriage:  Love lays down it’s own wants to lift up the will of another.

Love lets go of its plans -- to hold on to a person.

-- Ann Voskamp, How to Be a Better Lover

White As Snow

"Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..."

-- Isaiah 1:18

I thanked God in the middle of all the woody white this morning when a voice within me said, "YOU can't thank God. You sin one day and then pretend to thank Him the next! That is not right. You are not worthy to imagine yourself in a relationship with Him." I felt stung, partly because the Accuser's words were true. I am not worthy. I said that to myself in response. I am not worthy.

"...but, that is not the basis of my love for you", said another Voice. At this, I could almost feel the snarl of indignation from the former voice as it vaporized from the scene. It felt as if he couldn't slay me with the half-truth he was using against me, he would leave silence to linger around my response to see if I really believed it, really accepted it. It was odd that something so loud could grow so quiet, and so quickly.

I thanked God again for the beauty of the morning, for the snow, and for the gift of knowing that I will be as white as it is.

Good to Complain

One of our more common and basic complaints at one point or another is that our needs are not being met. They can become a general view of things, or more often than not, they can take the form of what we believe about another person -- a spouse, an employer, a church, a friend, a family member. Whether directly or passively, we operate from something as we complain about what we feel we need...that someone else is not giving us.

I caught myself in this the other day. And, it took a good run to sort it out. In the end, through my complaining, I realized that the evidence I had been accumulating was highly selective. The conclusions I was reaching for based on that evidence were leaving quite a bit out. Because the truth is...my needs have been met. Not always...and not completely by another person, but even in those cases a lot has been met that I tend to forget about.

I rediscovered that ultimately, what I really need has already been met and I don't need to require of others that they keep meeting them in order for me to be happy. They don't need to do it and I don't need them to. Everything I really need has already been given to me. I am free to live out of that truth and to give to others without getting everything I want back. When I live this way, something unexpected happens...what I need is met again.

...sometimes, it's good to complain. It exposes some things that I have forgotten, about what is true.

Expertise

Expertise, it seems to me, is built on repetition.

I was introduced to someone the other day.  I didn't think much of the person's name at the time.  A couple of days later, I saw that person again and tried to quickly remember the name.  It came at the last second.  I repeated it as I walked away and I realized that by making a mental note the third time, I would probably remember the name.  One might not be viewed as an 'expert', if he or she remembers people's names, but we do admire people who can do it well.

The more I thought about it, the more this technique seemed true in other areas as well.  Finding ways to repeat things, helps me learn.  The things I do over and over are things I become pretty good at.  Experts, in fact, seem to be those who have done something or looked at something enough that they seem to understand it or do it very well.

Some examples come to mind: studying for a test, learning to ride horses or a bike, learning a language, scientists who pour over data again and again, athletes who perfect their skill, becoming a musician or a great cook or a writer, counselors who listen to many people, etc. all use repetition.

At some level, this observation doesn't seem all the revolutionary.  Perhaps it's not.  But, in our culture, we often think of repetitive things as boring or that we want something new or different.  The real 'perhaps', however, might be that it is through repetition that we truly become able to learn something deeply, out of which we can then offer something of significance to another.


Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

-- Winston Churchill