Archive for Quotes
Persistence
The Forces of Mediocrity
by Seth GodinMaybe it should be, “the forces for mediocrity”…
There’s a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it’s right—then, quite suddenly, people will line up and support you.
In fact, the opposite is true. Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over.
If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.
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“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” —Albert Einstein
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“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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” —Teddy Roosevelt
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“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard
Change
Life is not a color-within-the-lines project:
life is a work of art.
You have to keep mixing colors,
creating new blends,
and seeing things in fresh ways.
You must be willing
to get paint
all over you.
Life is about growth.
Growth demands change.
Change requires humility.
Sometimes you need to bring change;
Sometimes you need to be changed.
Erwin McManus, Wide Awake (p61-62)
Chasing Daylight
“More often than not the signs pointing us to advance will be ominous. They will cause us to assess who we are and who we believe God to be. They will make clear our priorities. Are we in it for what we can get or for what we can give? The signs will expose our hearts, reveal our fears, and unleash our faith. There is a word for the mind-set of those who seize divine moments—advance. The night may be coming, but they are chasing daylight. They not only refuse to run from the challenge, they run with force toward it.”
—Erwin McManus, Chasing Daylight (175)
Life
“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” —Alfred D’ Souza
Church & State
“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will.
But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travelers at midnight.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.,
A Knock at Midnight
Archaic Theology III
While I was out on vacation I received the following email…
I hope you don’t mind an email from a complete stranger, but I am not what you would call a “blogger”. You made a comment on AC180.com that you do not believe that the earth is 6,000 years old. This was a blessing to me, let me explain briefly. I too am a Christian, but I am also a scientist. Therefore it is very difficult for me to accept the young earth theory simply based on what I know as scientific fact. I still believe the Bible as the divine word but feel that God does not want us to worry about things such as the age of the earth. This has become quite a conundrum for my wife and I as most of our Christian friends feel we are wrong. We have even left a church over things that were said to my wife questioning our faith. I have recently began worrying that perhaps I was in fact wrong for believing the way I do, so it was nice to read I am not alone in my way of thinking. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for stating what you truly believe and would enjoy hearing your reasoning for believing in an “older earth”.
It makes me feel good to get stuff like this, and reminds me how important our words and actions are. It also reminds me how much better life is when I don’t act like I know everything.
Because I don’t.
If you’ve followed this blog from the beginning you’d see a slow change in a lot of my perspectives. That came simply by being willing to listen to other views without judging them up front. That has truly changed my life. I challenge you to do the same. It could change yours as well.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” —Aristotle
“People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic.” —Tim Keller, The Reason for God
Quotable
“Having the world’s best idea will do you no good unless you act on it.
People who want milk shouldn’t sit on a stool in the middle of a field in the hopes that a cow will back up to them.” —Curtis Grant
The Ordinary Radical
I just heard this quote from one of my new favorite people, Shane Claiborne. It’s out of his book, Irresistible Revolution. His latest book, Jesus For President, is very high on my to-read list.
“When the church becomes a place of brokerage rather than an organic community, she ceases to be alive. She ceases to be something we are, the living bride of Christ. The church becomes a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff. Both go away satisfied (the rich feel good, the poor get clothed and fed), but no one leaves transformed.”
I highly recommend you listen to the talk he gave at Mars Hill Bible Church, entitled Finding Your Calcutta. Download mp3 here.
The Forces of Mediocrity
(From one of my favorite bloggers, Seth Godin.)
Maybe it should be, “the forces for mediocrity”…
There’s a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it’s right—then, quite suddenly, people will line up and support you.
In fact, the opposite is true. Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over.
If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” —Albert Einstein
Two Ears
“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes
(ht: Dennis— The road manager for the Compassion trip)
