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I was sitting in the practice room today. It would seem that utter hopelessness puts a neat kibosh on productivity.
I pulled out a quote:
"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." (Bill Eardley)
Inspiring words written by seemingly intellectual masters will sometimes fail you when you're in the wrong mindframe. At the keenest of my thinking, this quote I had kept looked like a sure-fire stimulant to a fresh mood and workable mind. In these words I found comfort. But, in all honesty, it was the comfort in hopes of comfort later. It seemed to me that at the slowest ebb of activity I would pull out the quote and an inspiring fire of persistent will would flood my veins. Not the case at all. No single quote from even such a manly set of words can bring me to that energized plane of thinking. Persistence seems all well and good; ambition and success also. What's hard is in my saddling these beasts.
Quoting something on a holier plane, however, seems more applicable. The simple and ancient Scripture, being itself translated repeatedly like a well-trodden wine-press, and with good reason, holds an acute wallop when it comes down to an honest canvas of mind. Such direct and sure words are, to me, perfect in times when everything seems completely useless; perfect when we're not steeped in some philosophical debate alongside sesquipedalian delivery; perfect when we're aren't flagged by the filthy stench of human-fueled pride.
I read these words: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances..." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18a)
There are literary passages one can gloss over and this is simply not one of them. The semi-colons, I find, are most effective if we use them like the Selah, or quiet pause, in David's Psalms. Within the pause there's a wonderfully confusing farrago of possibilities in application. I came to the conclusion that I simply could not abandon this life so graciously given to me at the first sign of trouble.
I'll give these words the time of day and they can change me, maybe because I see that pep-talk punchlines can't save me from the grip of deep worry and fear of the future. Both quotations are simple. But one is didactic and usable, leading you to a wiser level of thinking that truly helps any stretch of living; the other, a catch-phrase that holds little changing power and, in terms of its practical longevity, is too short for real glory. One washes away hindering attitudes, thoughts and behaviour, replacing it with fertile soil for productive growth; the other, maybe something millionaires are likely to have framed and put on their mantel for the relishing self alone. Ambition is only as good as those that have it; persistence to those who can keep hold of it.
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