Both beautiful and painfully true. But God. I'm profoundly thankful for the "But God." Recognizing what things are inside and outside that circle of personal control is crucial to my steady grip on hope and purpose. Letting go of my mirage of control for those things that fall outside is crucial to my wellbeing. I (routinely) fall into despair when I grasp after those things, like trying to hold onto handfuls of dry sand. But in reality, they are God's to mess with, not mine, and all I can do about them is trust Him for their care. This little truth wafted back into my awareness just this past Saturday morning. Seems He knows I need reminded of it from time to time...sigh. Thanks for the reenforcement!
People consumed with the ambition to "save the world" are capable of every cruelty imaginable. As the wise old politician said in Gore Vidal's The Best Man when asked the question, "Do you believe the ends justify the means?" answers, "There are no ends, only means."
There's an echo here of a truth that I have been forced to acknowledge, over and over again. Alone we control all, but accomplish little. To accomplish great things, we must embrace the inefficiency and frustration of releasing control of everything to controlling only what we must in order to have other hands help us build.
The word "no" is an incredibly powerful world, all outsized compared to the number of characters. It's a hard lesson to learn, but failing to learn it makes the lesson harder and inevitable anyway.
If you feel someone is asking you to do something you cannot, say "no."
Even if the person asking you is *your own self*.
The earlier you say it, the less crumbling or crumpling you will experience.
Most of those of us who growing up tending to be rather inquisitive, with even with the most patient parents , I suspect remember after countless cogent replies to our "Why Daddy why" queries getting the stopper answer; "Just because!"
Decades later perhaps we realize that that's really quite an adequate reason to in spite of tripping and slipping, Keep On Truckin'.
"If you are told that you’ll be aboard the rocket as a reward for your work, and then that doesn’t materialize, you begin to resent the false hope of the promise. You trusted, and were betrayed." Embracing a false hope, when maybe you should know better, is a self-betrayal. Skipping past the doom and gloom, I like the final paragraph best. It could stand alone in this post.
Both beautiful and painfully true. But God. I'm profoundly thankful for the "But God." Recognizing what things are inside and outside that circle of personal control is crucial to my steady grip on hope and purpose. Letting go of my mirage of control for those things that fall outside is crucial to my wellbeing. I (routinely) fall into despair when I grasp after those things, like trying to hold onto handfuls of dry sand. But in reality, they are God's to mess with, not mine, and all I can do about them is trust Him for their care. This little truth wafted back into my awareness just this past Saturday morning. Seems He knows I need reminded of it from time to time...sigh. Thanks for the reenforcement!
People consumed with the ambition to "save the world" are capable of every cruelty imaginable. As the wise old politician said in Gore Vidal's The Best Man when asked the question, "Do you believe the ends justify the means?" answers, "There are no ends, only means."
That's why they called it the Good News, those men and women. They were past mastering the art of always falling down and still being alive.
And of getting up again, and going on, still trusting in God.
"Verweile doch. Du bist so schön!"
Whoever strives with all his might. Him, we can save.
I always liked Zelazny's A Rose for Ecclesiastes.
Every act of beauty, every choice of connection, continues to stand in the great Mystery.
There's an echo here of a truth that I have been forced to acknowledge, over and over again. Alone we control all, but accomplish little. To accomplish great things, we must embrace the inefficiency and frustration of releasing control of everything to controlling only what we must in order to have other hands help us build.
The word "no" is an incredibly powerful world, all outsized compared to the number of characters. It's a hard lesson to learn, but failing to learn it makes the lesson harder and inevitable anyway.
If you feel someone is asking you to do something you cannot, say "no."
Even if the person asking you is *your own self*.
The earlier you say it, the less crumbling or crumpling you will experience.
Most of those of us who growing up tending to be rather inquisitive, with even with the most patient parents , I suspect remember after countless cogent replies to our "Why Daddy why" queries getting the stopper answer; "Just because!"
Decades later perhaps we realize that that's really quite an adequate reason to in spite of tripping and slipping, Keep On Truckin'.
"If you are told that you’ll be aboard the rocket as a reward for your work, and then that doesn’t materialize, you begin to resent the false hope of the promise. You trusted, and were betrayed." Embracing a false hope, when maybe you should know better, is a self-betrayal. Skipping past the doom and gloom, I like the final paragraph best. It could stand alone in this post.
Thank you for following me through the written thought processing from where I started to where I finally came to grips with it.
When it is written well it is easier to follow trhough.
^(Hah, was going to edit the typo but think I'll let it stand as a reminder of clay feet.)