he who has eyes...

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” [Proverbs 14:23]

This American Life, a radio program on NPR, is one of the best shows on any form of media, period.  If you can get over the ridiculous liberal agenda that is almost as blatant as The Daily Show (or Fox News for the conservative agenda), you’ll find stories that are ridiculously funny, heart-warming, sad… you name it.  It’s rare for an episode not to evoke some strong emotion in me.

There’s an episode called Sink or Swim (episode 321 for those keeping track at home) in which they tell the story of a man named Chauncey Julius — a failing high school student who decides to turn his life around.  He is a very charismatic person, and eventually finds himself at Boys State because of potential a guidance counselor saw in him, elected governor there, and a local hero in his hometown.  He’s built up as this pillar of the community who has so much potential, and people just laud praise over him based on all of this potential.  Eventually, he gets completely overwhelmed when it becomes apparent that he’s obviously in over his head — and he fails.  He first fails to actually graduate high school with his class, but eventually makes it to college anyhow, where he also fails to separate himself.  He loses his scholarship and drops out.

Whether we realize it or not, there is always a time in our life where we stop being recognized based on our potential and start being recognized for what we have done or what we are doing.  At that time, we have a choice to make — we either sink or swim.

I’ve been there multiple times, and thankfully God keeps giving me another chance to swim.  My potential has caught up with me four times now that I’ve counted, at which point I inevitably sink, but I keep getting another chance to produce when opportunities are presented based upon my potential.  I recently started back up in grad school after being on leave and working at a financial firm — a job I was hired into based solely on potential and the recommendation of a fellow journeyman Phil.  Phil is my dopplegänger three years in the future.  All my thoughts and experiences on being lauded with praise based on potential, failing to meet expectations, feeling like a complete failure because of this and therefore becoming avoidant, and so forth… Phil has been there and lived through them all.  He even quit grad school, worked for Susquehanna to escape, and then left there and went back to grad school — just like I did.  It’s freaky.

We met for lunch not too long ago, and here is the up-shot of something we discussed, which is pertinent to the topic at hand, of course.

The Proverbs are littered with God saying over and over again, “Those who work hard are successful, those who don’t fail.”  It’s as if God wants you to know as deep as you can know it that your potential alone will not move you forward in life.  You can live a very rewarding life filled with accomplishments and doing great things, but it isn’t going to come without hard work.  It’s just not.

• “Lazy hands make a man poor,
       but diligent hands bring wealth.” [Proverbs 10:4]
• “He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son,
       but he who sleeps through harvest is a disgraceful son.” [Proverbs 10:5]
• “Diligent hands will rule,
       but laziness ends in slave labor.” [Proverbs 12:24]
• “The sluggard craves and gets nothing,
       but the desires of the diligent are fulfilled.” [Proverbs 13:4]

In no way does it say something like:

“The gifted man succeeds without effort,
     but the talentless will never amount to anything.”

You couldn’t get a more un-biblical idea.  There is no room in an understanding of who God is that would allow you to believe that you will succeed in life simply because of how much potential you have or talent you have if you don’t see that potential through to action and that talent through to borne fruit.

Even the act of embracing our salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection for our sins requires action.  I mean look: the word “embracing” is right there — that’s an action word.  Without the fact that we have to do some sort of action here, you get universalism.

So, when it gets down to it, everything that is worth having in life takes hard work.  It’s not going to be simply handed out to you because of how good you are or how you look on paper.  This is such a shame, because so far that’s all I’ve got going for me.  But, getting over that hump in life that moves you from potential to accomplishments is of the utmost importance.  It really is.

So, when you get there, if you haven’t already, remember that there are two choices — sink or swim.  Maybe you’ll be blessed with more opportunities to prove yourself, but it’s best to play it safe.  Eventually those water wings will come off, and you really don’t want to find yourself in over you head when that happens.

Chauncey eventually landed in the Army, where his superiors immediately saw in him something that other people didn’t — just like what the counselor who sent Chauncey to Boys State did years ago. He saw in him the potential to be a leader in the Army. And, Chauncey was again placed in a position to succeed. Sometimes we do keep getting opportunities to succeed even when our track record of how we handled these things doesn’t seem so good.

But, as long as we have just one more chance, we can always make the most of our latest. Don’t let it pass you by because you never know when it’ll be your last golden opportunity.