“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
—Lao Tzu.
No gimmicks. No promises that can’t be realised. This is guaranteed to work if it’s applied as it’s described.
Most self-improvement ‘masterpieces’ offer these gimmicks, promises and guarantees and we’ve almost always been stung by them; they fall empty time and again.
I want this offering to be different. I’ve sought to live this system myself, and as a purveyor of these things, I’ve wanted to get it right for myself, be that selfishly motivated to some point. Notwithstanding, I’ve also wanted it to be enshrined in truth—a truth that works for you as well as it works for me—this is so it works for everyone equally; because it’s based in truth.
This is merely the Introduction, but in it the golden premise is founded.
The Will to Try
The nature of life is we get disheartened too easily. We see our present failures in the midst of our best efforts and we lose hope when the possibilities of success are just as real—but our vision fails us.
It’s no different in friendships and marriages. They only ever blossom over the years of trial and error, pain and forgiveness—for we all disappoint at some point or other. Yet, we learn how to endure the many tough times to reap the good that seems never to come. But, we’re told reliably to keep sowing well because at the proper time we will reap a harvest of good outcomes if we don’t give up! (Galatians 6:9)
Life is in the development of this thing called “resilience.” But in practical terms, it’s not easy to learn. It takes years of practice, amongst heartache—a lifetime, it seems, of continual application. The process of application is necessarily messy. Failure precedes and underpins success.
The process of growth to adulthood is a good case in point. A parent will often impatiently question if a growing child will ever learn to clean their room or manage their (or others’) possessions properly. Yet, we all (with relatively few exceptions) do learn eventually—we all reach adulthood. If this were not so, our world would have crumbled centuries ago.
Faith – The Vital Ingredient
It pays to have faith in life—with others and ourselves—not ‘either/or,’ but ‘both/and.’ Without faith it is impossible to exhibit the will to try.
Manifest faith is this: it’s managing the hours and minutes of our lives, obediently remaining watchful regarding our interaction and involvement with it. It’s a superabundant care and self-care. This is so we can—with some level of control—realise the dream that’s always been present in our hearts (and always will be).
We see ourselves in this dream as simply made and simply functioning; life’s not that complicated. We’re perfectly joyous creatures for the greater part. And for this larger part the “dream” is attainable if we do not give up on it!
That is the resilience of faith for life: a thing honed through difficulty, opportunity, exposure, practice.
© 2009 S. J. Wickham.
No comments:
Post a Comment