In the Absence of Success

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The more I give positive feedback to folks about how they have influenced my life for the good, the more convinced I am that most people think they make very little difference. Some people get periodic feedback, and some small unfortunate portion of us may never know what we did to make a positive difference in the lives of other people. No matter how frustrating it might be when our efforts don't bear the fruit for which we really hope, the formula for a successful life is much simpler than we think.

Consequently I've thought a lot about how to encourage people when it seems like you're tilting at windmills. For New Years, a friend of mine posted to her blog a quote I really liked:

"Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one." ~Robert Brault

Common decency in a world that expects little from people and offers them less is a great mark of humanity. Many people are homo sapiens, but very few are actually human beings. Brault seems to indicate the life well lived, the one in which you actually demonstrate respect and honesty, and fairness, is one in which you do these things by choice. Notice that all the words he uses are action words: wait, take, and seek. Actively deciding to be a good person makes the days worth living.

To some, life might seem as if we never existed. Perhaps you feel like an ant or a grasshopper, which is one of many trillions and so small compared to the universe that you feel it makes very little difference that you even exist. If your view of existence is that after this life there is nothing, then I understand your plight. If there really is nothing, then nothing we do matters, if it even happens. What would be the point to sentient life if it's that transitory?

However, there is a purpose to life. You see, our detractors tell us that life is a series of marathons at the end of which there's not so much as a ribbon for finishing let alone a cash prize. When I think of this, I think of James Kirk climbing El Capitan in Star Trek VI. Spock asks him why he's bothering, and Kirk says because it's there. He gets a sense of accomplishment from reaching the top. You see, sometimes the reward is in what we become as we work to arrive at a destination. Although I can't cite the source as such, I remember that Heber Grant, after returning from Japan from his service as a Christian missionary in 1903, was told that "his success was that he continued in the absence of success".

In one of his sermons that I've already mentioned on my blog some time before he competed to be part of Britain's contingent to the 1924 Paris Olympics, Eric Liddel said the following:

You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe you're dinner's burnt. Maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, "Believe, have faith," in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me." If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.

The race is not about who crosses first. The human race is a test to see who will pay the price to concentrate their will and focus the energy of the soul to finish the race. It is hard, because it demands of us something more than we're naturally inclined to give.

This is how your success can be in the absence of success. You see, most equate success with some kind of prize, some kind of medal, and although Liddel did medal in 1924, his biggest victory was in staying true to his principles and telling the future King of England that he would not run on the Sabbath. However, everyone who finishes the race finishes the race. That is an amazing accomplishment.

A few years back, I tried to run a marathon. I thought it would be cool to say I had or do it many times, or whatever. After I ran the half marathon, I decided that if I wanted to use my knees past the age of 50 it was not wise for me, but I finished the race. Some people never do. They run fast and burn out or they are ill prepared or they get sick. I will always remember the olympics in Beijing a few years back where the putative front runner for the marathon got sick about 1km from the finish and never completed the race, even though she was in the front up until then. I felt bad for her.

Seeing the race to the end and running a straight race are the point of our existence. DH Groberg wrote a poem about this. For a slightly overly melodramatic reading, you can watch below:

There is a reason we praise runners. They have learned to go the distance.