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Teddy
Posted in The Kitchen Sink on Mon, October 31, 2011
Hanging in my house, is one of my favorite quotes. It’s Teddy Roosevelt. Lifted from a speech he gave in 1910. I like it for lots of reasons but, here’s the point. If you’re ever been rejected, knocked down, set back, trampled over, lost anything, lost everything, come up short or flat-out failed, then be encouraged. You’re in good company. Welcome to the human race. The question for me, and the reason this thing is hanging in my house, is not if these things will happen to me, but how will I respond when they do. Anyone can achieve mediocrity, but to dare something great, to try again, to stand back up, to dust myself off...well, that takes something else. And you can’t buy it at Wal-Mart. So, to those of you with ‘marred by dust and sweat and blood,’ my hat’s off to you.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
FYI—if you’d like one hanging on your wall, you can find it at Michael Podesta
(Note: The folks at Michael Podesta don’t know me and I’m not making anything off this.)
Charles,
My son and his wife are going through one of life’s greatest tests right now. Their son Bennett is a week old today and is in need of a heart transplant. You can see how they are handling this at http://bennettjustice.tumblr.com .
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I’ve never done anything heroic, but I’ve failed. A lot. When people point out my failure track record, I joke that I have a PhD in Failure. Most of the time the failures have been in relationships: 4 failed marriages, 6 children that grew up with a part-time dad, grandchildren that have only met me once.
I once attended a church service where a prophet singled me out. I was visiting the church, as was the prophet, so there was no way he would know me. The prophet came up to me and said, “I see the word ‘SHAME’ above me, in large letters. God wants you to know that He sees your shame, but He will turn your shame into gold. You will learn how to add, then how to multiply and you will teach others to add and to multiply. God wants you to know He’s seen your service, but He also wants you to know that it counts for nothing. God doesn’t need your service, He wants to spend time with you.”
It was (is) true, that shame has haunted me most of my adult life. I don’t know what the adding and multiplying and turning things to gold are about, but I did try to win God’s favor by serving Him every way I knew how. It truly was wasted effort - activity instead of a relationship with Him. But I still wait for God to take away my shame of failing my family.
The only thing I’ve ever been proud of, besides my kids, has been that I am loyal. I don’t quit. I know what you’re thinking - I quit on four families; but I didn’t quit, I moved on after others quit on me. I don’t make promises, but I do what I say I’ll do. I stuck with the Army for 24 years. I stuck with my pastor after everyone else left the church. Maybe that’s what they’ll put on my tombstone, “He was stuck, but he was loyal”. Ashamed too, but they don’t put that sort of thing on someone’s marker.
Yet I admire those who keep getting back up and who accomplish something with their lives. I admire the character of the men in Charles Martin’s novels. They represent the best qualities of a person.
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