Motivation will beat raw intelligence almost every time.
The single most important trait that our schools, families and other institutions can ingrain in our students is the importance of character. Without a strong ethical compass a student in his or her lifetime can only harm the world -- and most likely themselves and those around them. Beyond that, I would emphasize the importance of hard work. That is certainly true of the process of learning. More and more evidence suggests that it takes long hours working on very demanding tasks for one to learn. This is a disconcerting observation given that the number of hours per week college students study today is about half what it was a few decades ago, at which time it was not terribly large to begin with. But one simply can't hope to understand...without hard work.
-- Norman Augustine
From a really good interview: Continue Reading
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Courtesy and Egos
I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos.
-- Kenneth Clark
-- Kenneth Clark
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Mornings
There is something a bit indescribable about mornings. The older I get, the more I recognize the wonder and beauty of them (like today's sunrise), the more I look east to see what might be coming.
Perhaps it is because I get up earlier these days, due to a variety of things...work, a busied mind, the purging of the night's dreams, the shifting of my internal clock, the call of my morning workouts (or, in today's case, my Sunday morning ritual of a dawn-run through the woods -- by the way, Nature's Christmas Lights are on again!). Nonetheless, I anticipate morning. And, perhaps not unlike the majesty of sunsets, I have discovered what many others before me have discovered that there is something powerful about mornings.
Saturday mornings (not the Saturday Mornings posts per se), in particular, hold the prospect of something less predictable, less pre-determined. I feel a sense of openness...to my choice of what to do; what to get done, what to leave undone. There is a freedom in it that I have come to relish.
But, even more than this, morning strikes something deeper within me. The prospect of starting a day with beauty, rather than duty. The possibility of a new start, even in something regular. A deeper sense of grace.
I used to not even miss mornings; 'nothing going on anyway' (or so I thought). But now, the chance to freely wonder from the day's earliest moments what a day may hold, energizes me, particularly when I am blessed to have such color and beauty cascading behind me.
West-ward then!
Perhaps it is because I get up earlier these days, due to a variety of things...work, a busied mind, the purging of the night's dreams, the shifting of my internal clock, the call of my morning workouts (or, in today's case, my Sunday morning ritual of a dawn-run through the woods -- by the way, Nature's Christmas Lights are on again!). Nonetheless, I anticipate morning. And, perhaps not unlike the majesty of sunsets, I have discovered what many others before me have discovered that there is something powerful about mornings.
Saturday mornings (not the Saturday Mornings posts per se), in particular, hold the prospect of something less predictable, less pre-determined. I feel a sense of openness...to my choice of what to do; what to get done, what to leave undone. There is a freedom in it that I have come to relish.
But, even more than this, morning strikes something deeper within me. The prospect of starting a day with beauty, rather than duty. The possibility of a new start, even in something regular. A deeper sense of grace.
I used to not even miss mornings; 'nothing going on anyway' (or so I thought). But now, the chance to freely wonder from the day's earliest moments what a day may hold, energizes me, particularly when I am blessed to have such color and beauty cascading behind me.
West-ward then!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Effort
What is it about effort that so many are afraid of? ...that makes us too willing to let those who do it, do it? We love stories about the effort involved in over-coming. But, we don't really want to work any harder than we have to. What do we believe, when we behave this way?
Perhaps, we should consider what drives effort? More often than not, it seems to me, effort is driven by desire. We want something. It we want something bad enough, we will work for it. At other times, desire is driven by need. We need something, so we will work for it. And, when the chips are really down, our need can be even more basic, like the need just to survive.
Maybe we don't put out too much effort because we really don't need to. We already have the better part of what we want without having to work very hard for it. But, under this reality, I suspect we are missing out on something good that was intended for us as humans, something that is a result or by-product of effort.
Are we simply caught up in the exceptions of cause-and-effect? For example, sometimes the results of effort don't come just because of the effort. But, just because that is true, it doesn't mean that most of the time results do actually come from effort; thus the common phrase, "you get out of it what you put into it". The problem shows up when we require that they do, when we put forth effort because of the results, for the sole purpose of achieving the results we want. When we get here, we get mad when we don't get what we want, especially when we've worked hard at something and it didn't yield the result we were hoping for. When we are here, we find ourselves operating with a sense of entitlement -- I am owed the result just because of my effort.
We, however, were created differently, to act differently, to believe differently. We were made to be care-takers in life, to preserve it, to offer it. And, this requires effort, a working at it. But, the real granting of life is a harmony with the Giver of life -- the One who can make things grow. We can plant seeds, but we can't make them grow. So, our effort isn't owed a result, but it does join in harmony with the results that can be given. This is why we are free to work hard, in fact created to work hard, not because of what we will get out of it, but because of what is broadly given when we join something good that we were made to take care of.
Perhaps, we should consider what drives effort? More often than not, it seems to me, effort is driven by desire. We want something. It we want something bad enough, we will work for it. At other times, desire is driven by need. We need something, so we will work for it. And, when the chips are really down, our need can be even more basic, like the need just to survive.
Maybe we don't put out too much effort because we really don't need to. We already have the better part of what we want without having to work very hard for it. But, under this reality, I suspect we are missing out on something good that was intended for us as humans, something that is a result or by-product of effort.
Are we simply caught up in the exceptions of cause-and-effect? For example, sometimes the results of effort don't come just because of the effort. But, just because that is true, it doesn't mean that most of the time results do actually come from effort; thus the common phrase, "you get out of it what you put into it". The problem shows up when we require that they do, when we put forth effort because of the results, for the sole purpose of achieving the results we want. When we get here, we get mad when we don't get what we want, especially when we've worked hard at something and it didn't yield the result we were hoping for. When we are here, we find ourselves operating with a sense of entitlement -- I am owed the result just because of my effort.
We, however, were created differently, to act differently, to believe differently. We were made to be care-takers in life, to preserve it, to offer it. And, this requires effort, a working at it. But, the real granting of life is a harmony with the Giver of life -- the One who can make things grow. We can plant seeds, but we can't make them grow. So, our effort isn't owed a result, but it does join in harmony with the results that can be given. This is why we are free to work hard, in fact created to work hard, not because of what we will get out of it, but because of what is broadly given when we join something good that we were made to take care of.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Wrath
If God were to return and judge the world of evil, what would happen to us? Would we be able to inhabit a perfect world? What happens when we realize that we are part of the the problem, not just the ones longing for a solution?
When we imagine our place within the cosmic story of redemption, we come to realize we are more than passive victims of evil's consequences. We are evil insurrectionists, rebels against the good and loving authority of God our Creator. In the Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered at the hands of the Soviet Communists, put it well: "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart." We thirst for justice, but once we consider the fairness of God, we quickly discover that Christ's return can only be good news if we have found mercy in God's sight.
-- Trevin Wax, "Rejoicing In The Wrath" (CT - Global Gospel Project)
When we imagine our place within the cosmic story of redemption, we come to realize we are more than passive victims of evil's consequences. We are evil insurrectionists, rebels against the good and loving authority of God our Creator. In the Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered at the hands of the Soviet Communists, put it well: "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart." We thirst for justice, but once we consider the fairness of God, we quickly discover that Christ's return can only be good news if we have found mercy in God's sight.
-- Trevin Wax, "Rejoicing In The Wrath" (CT - Global Gospel Project)
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Him vs Me
The first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan ...reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Plant Trees
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
-- Nelson Handerson
-- Nelson Handerson
Monday, October 22, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Friendly Intercourse
After the city, where we had always lived, those country years were startling. . . . The surprise of animals . . . in and out, cats and dogs and a milk goat and chickens and guinea hens, all taken for granted, as if man was intended to live on terms of friendly intercourse with the rest of creation instead of huddling in isolation on the fourteenth floor of an apartment house in a city where animals occurred behind bars in the zoo.
-- Elizabeth Janeway
This reminded me of a one recent pre-dawn; the glint of Orion's sword flashed fabulously against its black velvet backdrop. It was mesmerizing. Not much later, the dense green of the forest was alight with a thousand tiny flames of yellow-leafed candles beckoning on the deeper autumn. The reds hadn't come yet, but the big browns were already crunchy under my feet. The air was thick with the moist and cool of the seasonal-adjustment now fully underway and the faintest whiffs of the evening-before burnings hung heavy in my nostrils. All conjuring up some kind of familiar, yet not fully known, ache for something both past and present. Quite a union on many levels. It was great to be alive. And still is....
There is a joy in beauty.
-- Elizabeth Janeway
This reminded me of a one recent pre-dawn; the glint of Orion's sword flashed fabulously against its black velvet backdrop. It was mesmerizing. Not much later, the dense green of the forest was alight with a thousand tiny flames of yellow-leafed candles beckoning on the deeper autumn. The reds hadn't come yet, but the big browns were already crunchy under my feet. The air was thick with the moist and cool of the seasonal-adjustment now fully underway and the faintest whiffs of the evening-before burnings hung heavy in my nostrils. All conjuring up some kind of familiar, yet not fully known, ache for something both past and present. Quite a union on many levels. It was great to be alive. And still is....
There is a joy in beauty.
Friday, October 19, 2012
True Freedom
True freedom is not choice or lack of constraint, but being
what you are meant to be.
-- St. Augustine
what you are meant to be.
-- St. Augustine
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Fascination
God, help me to move more out of fascination with what you are doing in someone else, than out of interest in seeing change in someone else.
I don't see all that you see...or even how what is going in on is being used by you to do your good work in another way or in another person. Such things are dimly lit waters, over which only you are the lighthouse.
Fascination would be born out of a deep trust in you, in your work. And you are a much better beacon than I.
I don't see all that you see...or even how what is going in on is being used by you to do your good work in another way or in another person. Such things are dimly lit waters, over which only you are the lighthouse.
Fascination would be born out of a deep trust in you, in your work. And you are a much better beacon than I.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
One God - Economics
I think we’re miserable partly because we have only one god, and that’s economics. Economics is a slave-driver. No one has free time; no one has any leisure. The whole culture is under terrible pressure and fraught with worry. It’s hard to get out of that box. That’s the dominant situation all over the world.
-- James Hillman
-- James Hillman
Monday, October 15, 2012
Our Political Environment of Election
We live now in, among other things, a market-driven society, where everything is marketed to us, whether we need it or not (even products designed to help with dysfunction are marketed to us whether we have dysfunction or not). And, yes, even Presidents are marketed to us in American Idol fashion (this link on that is worth your time to listen), borrowing heavily on both our deeper hopes and fears about life and the world. But the government can't do everything we want, much less everything we need:
Governments can do lots of things, but there are a lot of things they cannot do. A government can pass good laws, but no law can change a human heart. Only God can do that. A government can provide good housing, but folks can have a house without having a home. We can keep people breathing with good health care, but they still may not really be alive. The work of community, love, reconciliation, restoration is the work we cannot leave up to politicians. This is the work we are all called to do. We can’t wait on politicians to change the world. We can’t wait on governments to legislate love. And we don’t let policies define how we treat people; how we treat people shapes our policies.
I think this is another helpful read on some of what is going in an election environment like what we are experiencing these days:
If the Thought of Either Romney or Obama Getting Elected Makes You Fearful, Angry, or Depressed, You Have What we Call a Theological Problem
Governments can do lots of things, but there are a lot of things they cannot do. A government can pass good laws, but no law can change a human heart. Only God can do that. A government can provide good housing, but folks can have a house without having a home. We can keep people breathing with good health care, but they still may not really be alive. The work of community, love, reconciliation, restoration is the work we cannot leave up to politicians. This is the work we are all called to do. We can’t wait on politicians to change the world. We can’t wait on governments to legislate love. And we don’t let policies define how we treat people; how we treat people shapes our policies.
I think this is another helpful read on some of what is going in an election environment like what we are experiencing these days:
If the Thought of Either Romney or Obama Getting Elected Makes You Fearful, Angry, or Depressed, You Have What we Call a Theological Problem
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Nature
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
-- E.B. White
When you have a moment, for silence, choose to watch the video at the bottom this link:
http://www.michellederusha.com/2012/10/one-square-inch.html
-- E.B. White
When you have a moment, for silence, choose to watch the video at the bottom this link:
http://www.michellederusha.com/2012/10/one-square-inch.html
Friday, October 12, 2012
Choices
It is our choices...that show what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.
-- J. K. Rowling
far more than our abilities.
-- J. K. Rowling
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Beneath Our Feet
We spend our lives hurrying away from the real, as though it were deadly to us. “It must be somewhere up there on the horizon,” we think. And all the time it is in the soil, right beneath our feet.
-- William Bryant Logan
In hurrying for more happiness, you can hurry right past it.
-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
-- William Bryant Logan
In hurrying for more happiness, you can hurry right past it.
-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Education
...the best education is always self-inflicted.
-- Dr. Philip Riley
From: The Power of Small Moments
More often than not, we don't really learn until we want to...or need to.
-- Dr. Philip Riley
From: The Power of Small Moments
More often than not, we don't really learn until we want to...or need to.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Yellow-Head Dance
I came around another dirt-beaten bend on a forested path and there they were, hundreds of them. Slender. Tall. Radiant yellow-headed flowers all facing skyward, as if looking for something. Or, praising Someone.
I was running...but not now. I was stopped, in wonder at what all might be going on...in this one sun-drenched spot in an otherwise dense woods. A slight breeze introduced its music to the mix, making the scene as close to a Nature Dance as I've ever seen.
After being transfixed, I continued my run...coming across 2s and 3s of more yellow-heads creeping along the trail. It seemed as if they were headed somewhere...like to the gathering of them I had enjoyed just a few minutes before.
It struck me how not unlike them we are...as we gather together on days like today, to worship. Looking for the Light to warm and fulfill our lives. We take courage by the gathering, of others like and unlike us, and by those striving to get there at various points along their journey.
I wish I had a camera at the time; the radiance of the bright-yellowed scene rhythmically coming both from the earth and heaven at the same time was more than words can capture.
Sometimes we walk together, sometimes alone. But like the yellow-heads, whether we realize it or not, we are reaching upward for the Source of our life.
And, boy is it fun when the music's playin'!
I was running...but not now. I was stopped, in wonder at what all might be going on...in this one sun-drenched spot in an otherwise dense woods. A slight breeze introduced its music to the mix, making the scene as close to a Nature Dance as I've ever seen.
After being transfixed, I continued my run...coming across 2s and 3s of more yellow-heads creeping along the trail. It seemed as if they were headed somewhere...like to the gathering of them I had enjoyed just a few minutes before.
It struck me how not unlike them we are...as we gather together on days like today, to worship. Looking for the Light to warm and fulfill our lives. We take courage by the gathering, of others like and unlike us, and by those striving to get there at various points along their journey.
I wish I had a camera at the time; the radiance of the bright-yellowed scene rhythmically coming both from the earth and heaven at the same time was more than words can capture.
Sometimes we walk together, sometimes alone. But like the yellow-heads, whether we realize it or not, we are reaching upward for the Source of our life.
And, boy is it fun when the music's playin'!
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Calling
You will never lighten any load until you feel the pressure in your own soul.
The ultimate imperative and the training of your character, the training of your own heart, is going to happen when you are alone.
-- Ravi Zacharias
Really enjoyed this thinking / challenge regarding our 'calling' in life from a recent address at Wheaton College. Click image to watch the series.
Friday, October 05, 2012
What You Become
What you get by reaching your destination
is not nearly as important as what you will become
by reaching your destination.
-- Zig Ziglar
is not nearly as important as what you will become
by reaching your destination.
-- Zig Ziglar
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Disposition
I have learned that the greater part of
our misery or unhappiness is
determined not by our circumstance
but by our disposition.
-- Martha Washington
Some call this attitude. Some call this faith. Disposition puts it a bit uniquely; I like it. I especially resonate with the observation on 'our circumstances'.
Contemplative simplicity isn't a matter of circumstances; it's a matter of focus.
-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
our misery or unhappiness is
determined not by our circumstance
but by our disposition.
-- Martha Washington
Some call this attitude. Some call this faith. Disposition puts it a bit uniquely; I like it. I especially resonate with the observation on 'our circumstances'.
Contemplative simplicity isn't a matter of circumstances; it's a matter of focus.
-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
Monday, October 01, 2012
Sunrise
At our annual church harvest holiday week, the sunrise does it again.
Click pic...for more pics. 'Wasting' time, eating, talking, playing, and dancing (some of the dancing pics are pretty fun to click through quickly)! Quite the harmonies of 'being together'.