“And the world will be better for this—that one man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage…”
Mitch Leigh and Joseph Darion
The Impossible Dream
When, at its end, a life is weighed in the balances it is measured as a single entity. Successes and failures are lost in the finished product. Intention outweighs action, the heart is the strongest muscle of all, and daring to try is heavier than safety.
Every trial faced, every trouble endured, and every decision made whether good or bad is but a battle. None of them are the war. Pyrrhus won every battle and lost the war. U.S. Grant lost every battle from the Wilderness until the fall of Richmond and won the war.
The difference between victory and defeat is not talent. It’s not even really the persistence people cheer about so much. Neither is it found in being your own person, living as you choose without regard to others. On the contrary, it’s more about never having a choice—at least not a choice you can live with.
It’s about acting on the thing that drives you and paying the price for taking the ride. Life is handed to you. After that, it is what you make it. Life can be filled with struggle, pain, and heartbreaking disappointment and still be a resounding success. You fight the giants, assail the castles, and chase your dream like a crazy person, that’s the fare one must pay for a life of substance.
St. Paul once told those he knew, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved”. He knew life was not about what you get from it but what you give to it.
To be impoverished and mocked, only to pour out your life in a fight to live every day is a war worth waging. It is the only way to the final page and closes the book with the author satisfied.
Maranatha
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