Good Enough
'You can do anything if you put your mind to it' - so goes the popular wisdom when it comes to stimulating ambition and concentrated effort. And very inspiring it can be too - there are, doubtless, many people who can attribute some particular achievement to their long perseverance in pursuit of a desired goal.
Nevertheless, it is simply not true that you can do anything if you put your mind to it - the popular wisdom is a popular myth. Roger Federer set his mind to win Wimbledon again this year, but his shock exit from the tournament on Wednesday means that it will be someone else's name that gets engraved on the famous trophy on Sunday. Similarly, Venus Williams will hardly have come into this year's competition with anything other than victory on her mind, but she's already been defeated. And no one can accuse the England football team, or the FA, of not setting their minds to winning the World Cup, yet the squad has already arrived back home after a humiliating loss to Germany.
These are high-profile examples of a truth that we all experience - that no matter how much we might want something, and no matter how much effort we put into achieving it, we sometimes fall short of it. We simply cannot do anything we put our minds to, so we need to be careful about telling each other that we can. This is not to deny the value of encouraging focus, determination and perseverance in one another, but it is to caution against raising unrealistic expectations, giving false hope and nurturing a refusal to honestly acknowledge our respective limitations.
God has created each of us as unique individuals, and so we have different skills and abilities - some of us excel at painting, others at bricklaying and still others at brain surgery. And most of us have average ability in a number of areas. Setting our minds to try different things as we explore our God-given, multi-faceted identity will help us discover those things we can achieve, albeit with years of focussed effort, those things which are beyond us, and those things that we enjoy for their own sake, regardless of our degree of talent or success.
Viewed from a biblical perspective on humanity, excellence is no barometer of significance. I like to play a bit of tennis, but I can confidently tell you that no matter how much I put my mind to that particular sport, I'll never beat Roger Federer - and that's OK.
Of course, accepting our limitations doesn't mean we must be bound by them - knowing I'll never actually triumph doesn't stop me from playing Roger Federer at tennis; I just have to be prepared to lose well, cheerfully accepting that I'm just not good enough to win, and that that's good enough.
Nigel Hopper
Excellent article. This debunks alot of false hopes, unattainable ambitions and unreasonable expectations - e.g. from parents, positive thinkers .. and ourselves. Loving God first and foremost doesn't mean wild success but dedicated service. And when we think about it, our businesses might be led by ambitious achievers, but they only work because many loyal people do what they've been asked to do - and are good at doing - faithfully.
Date:
2010-07-02 08:59:47
Author:
Cal Bailey