It is VERY interesting for me to see so many totally ok with the 50 shades of violence and perversion in a book, as if it is just fiction and acceptable in our culture, then apply a different standard to our wannabe leaders. I would like to thank you guys for sparking a Scholar Ministries blog entry, though! J
I lead! You lead! Somebody is following the behaviors and approvals YOU (mom, dad, mentor, pastor, teacher, friend) exhibit. I look at many politicians who fall frighteningly short of past statesmen and wonder what they are thinking. Then I immediately look to my own behaviors and approvals to see if I am choosing a double standard.
I recently found a convicting passage from an important person who dared to do great things:
“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.”
If I am a critic only and I choose to focus on how the man stumbled, yet do nothing worthy or daring in and of myself, then I do not count! If I am the face covered in sweat and blood, then I am often too busy doing great deeds to spend harsh words and criticism on those who are also in the arena…primarily due to my honest ignorance of the TRUE details and circumstances the other warrior must have striven through. Is it not to his or her credit that they are still standing?
I absolutely do not applaud the past failures or present character flaws that either the Republican or the Democrat own! How I long for a true statesman to step to the forefront and dare greatly! Why has the American political culture latched onto these two individuals? Why do we think it the only available course we have to follow? Why do we criticize potential leaders for harsh words and then turn to each other and use equally or harsher language?
I don’t know the answers. I only know that face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…hardship…solitude…heartbreak…grief…failure upon failure. I also know that I am daring greatly…striving valiantly…sacrificially devoted…often criticized…never cold or timid…and I will fully know both victory and defeat.
BTW, the passage titled “The Man in the Arena” is an excerpt from ”Citizenship In A Republic”, a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris on April 23, 1910.
by Ms Rebecca
