As a quick rebuttal to Mr Pots' last blog (www.christopherchu.blogspot.com):
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecc. 9:11)
I know I've said this before, but it is my favorite verse from my favorite book of the Bible. I must say that I've always had the problem of feeling mediocre to bad at everything I put my hand to. The most frustrating part is feeling mediocre to bad at everything I truly love to do. Yes, I'm surrounded by a loving family but, the truth is, that doesn't stop me from questioning my value as a person in the way of abilities, gifts, or talents. I wasn't born with any particular gifts or talents. I wasn't born with any particular handicaps either. I'm not driven to succeed and I haven't worked hard since three-years-old to be excellent at anything. However, who's to say I'm not the one for the job, whatever that might be. There will ALWAYS be someone better . . . ALWAYS! Maybe I'm the world’s BEST Obo player. I've never played the Obo so how would I know? Maybe I could be a gold meddle winner at the cross-country skiing in the Olympics. The plain fact of the matter is that time and chance happens to everyone! When I was in the church choir I knew I wasn't the best singer in the church--I wasn't even a good singer in the church. I was just a singer that had time for practice and loved to sing. So does it really matter if you're good if God put you there? I guess it's perspective. One must remember that one is not the best and one will inevitably fail . . . we all do. We're not the best, maybe not even mediocre. But if God has put us there, there is no reason to be ashamed. God never used the best in the Bible. Adam, Abraham, David, Rahab, Peter, Paul, even Jesus was a Nazarite which was definitely not the best according to the Jews.
Another thing I like to remember is that humility is the most comforting protection God ever gave us. We've already established that we probably won't consider ourselves good at whatever God has us do. We're the scum of the earth and horrible at everything. Whew! Takes a lot of pressure off, huh? So when I do something worth while, do I downplay it? no. Would I downplay someone else's work? no. The point is that downplaying it is just false humility. CS Lewis says that humility is the ability to stand back and look at your own work with total objectivity, being able to praise or condemn it without bias. This we can do if we have no personal attachment to it. And why would we have personal attachment if we know that nothing good can come from us anyway? This is the mindset that frees men to do great things.
So, Mr. Pots, I don't think you needed this sermon. You're blog just stimulated these thoughts and I had to add them--maybe for my own benefit, mostly. Keep up the good work and keep those Frisbees clean!!
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecc. 9:11)
I know I've said this before, but it is my favorite verse from my favorite book of the Bible. I must say that I've always had the problem of feeling mediocre to bad at everything I put my hand to. The most frustrating part is feeling mediocre to bad at everything I truly love to do. Yes, I'm surrounded by a loving family but, the truth is, that doesn't stop me from questioning my value as a person in the way of abilities, gifts, or talents. I wasn't born with any particular gifts or talents. I wasn't born with any particular handicaps either. I'm not driven to succeed and I haven't worked hard since three-years-old to be excellent at anything. However, who's to say I'm not the one for the job, whatever that might be. There will ALWAYS be someone better . . . ALWAYS! Maybe I'm the world’s BEST Obo player. I've never played the Obo so how would I know? Maybe I could be a gold meddle winner at the cross-country skiing in the Olympics. The plain fact of the matter is that time and chance happens to everyone! When I was in the church choir I knew I wasn't the best singer in the church--I wasn't even a good singer in the church. I was just a singer that had time for practice and loved to sing. So does it really matter if you're good if God put you there? I guess it's perspective. One must remember that one is not the best and one will inevitably fail . . . we all do. We're not the best, maybe not even mediocre. But if God has put us there, there is no reason to be ashamed. God never used the best in the Bible. Adam, Abraham, David, Rahab, Peter, Paul, even Jesus was a Nazarite which was definitely not the best according to the Jews.
Another thing I like to remember is that humility is the most comforting protection God ever gave us. We've already established that we probably won't consider ourselves good at whatever God has us do. We're the scum of the earth and horrible at everything. Whew! Takes a lot of pressure off, huh? So when I do something worth while, do I downplay it? no. Would I downplay someone else's work? no. The point is that downplaying it is just false humility. CS Lewis says that humility is the ability to stand back and look at your own work with total objectivity, being able to praise or condemn it without bias. This we can do if we have no personal attachment to it. And why would we have personal attachment if we know that nothing good can come from us anyway? This is the mindset that frees men to do great things.
So, Mr. Pots, I don't think you needed this sermon. You're blog just stimulated these thoughts and I had to add them--maybe for my own benefit, mostly. Keep up the good work and keep those Frisbees clean!!
