Actually Strives to do the Deeds—Not Just Talk About Them

Feeling tired in body (I seem to have taken Ella’s little virus with me to Indiana) and praying for the strength to serve well this evening, I read through some of the archives of Wrestling with an Angel and found so many things worth reading and re-reading. Let me share just two quotes with you and then I need to do a little more prep:

“My (Greg’s) personal adaptation of Theodore Roosevelt’s great quote: ‘It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of the deeds could have done them better. The true victory is awarded to the man whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who fails miserably, and falls short again  and again, because there is no growth without failure; yet even in failure victory is grasped by the man who actually strives to do the deeds, not just talk about them all day; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who experiences great love and who makes great sacrifices; who spends himself entirely in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of God in his life, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who waste their lives knowing neither victory not defeat.'”

“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.” John Piper