Life has a way of walloping us; something like a train hurtling out of nowhere and we just happen to be standing on the tracks. Sometimes the hit is expected as we’ve seen it coming from a long ways off. Many times it’s not expected at all. Sometimes it might be entirely justified, being the natural outcome of our poor choices or lax attitude or impulsive behaviors. Other times there’s absolutely no explanation for it, leaving us asking all the innumerable “why” questions that beg answers that they rarely get.
Regardless, the force of the impact slams us to the floor . . . again. With enough of these experiences under our belts we begin to figure out that getting up is setting us up to be knocked down again. We can cite all the clean and trite statements about fighting in life, about never giving up, about staying resolute in the face of humongous challenges, quoting “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” about being the “David” facing the “Goliath’s” that keep showing up. Sure stories are nice, but they too often seem to pale, showing themselves as entirely inadequate and even fanciful when their messages are set against the realities of hurtling trains and thundering “Goliath’s” that we’re always facing.
So we get flattened. The view from down there becomes all too familiar, so much so that we wonder if we’ll ever really have any other view. Sometimes we think that maybe this isn’t being “down there” at all. Maybe this is the place that we’re really supposed to live life from. Maybe the reality that we keep ending up down there is due to the fact that we’re supposed to be down there in the first place. Maybe life is not being cruel at all. Maybe it’s just keeping us exactly where we’re supposed to be. So maybe we should just stay there.
Try, Try Again . . . But Why?
The renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh said, “In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.” But why? Why press on? Why do it all over again? Why risk when the consequences of risking seem to outweigh whatever small victory we might gain in the risking? Why get up just to get knocked down again? Why?
Life is a Battle
Why? Because this journey that we’re on is a battle. We don’t have to like it, but it’s a hard reality whether we want to like it or not. On top of that, its typically not a fair battle either. If we’re to have anything of significance, it’s typically hard won. If we want our lives and our actions to count for something, there’s a steep cost that we incur to make it so. Indeed, we can valiantly run up the white flag and surrender, then passively submerge ourselves in the listless currents of mediocrity, allowing them to take us off to some place ultimately meaningless. Or we can fight for something that bestows some degree of meaning, value and purpose to this journey that we call life. Life is a battle. That’s a non-negotiable reality. Whether we fight it or not, that’s entirely our choice.
Courage, Not Inadequacy in the Battle
An unknown author wrote, “Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.” Many times in this battle, the hits that we take are attributed to some sort of perceived inadequacy. We see ourselves as terribly inferior. We attribute the events and the nature of our circumstances to some deficit within us that either keeps setting us up to be knocked down, or is inadequate in its ability to get us back up, or both. Either way, we focus on some assumed inadequacy that explains our dilemma. In a sense, it then gives our circumstances a rational and a permission to exist. We’re here because this is who we are and this is the best that we can do.
In reality, the issue is often courage. It’s grabbing hold of all the abilities that we possess, whether they be great or small, and courageously forging forward. It’s recognizing that courage can take the smallest of abilities and use them to achieve things beyond the scope of those abilities themselves. It’s not based on the amount of ability that we have. Rather, it’s based on how rigorously we are willing to apply those abilities and how much we are willing to sacrifice in the application. That’s the stuff of courage.
Persistence and Determination as a Product of Courage
Calvin Coolidge wrote, ” Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Persistence and determination are fueled by courage. They are not dismayed by the amount of things life throws at them. It’s not about the volume of things that befall us; how many hurtling trains and looming Goliath’s that come at us to knock us flat. The focus is on what we will do with those things. It’s the belief that life has a thread of purpose that is firmly woven through it that makes these situations and these times much more than cruel happenstance. It’s resting in the reality that life is a battle, and that because it is we have a determining hand it in. Because we have a hand in it, we can make victory as much or more of a possibility as defeat. It’s not about what comes against us. It’s about our determination to grab it and wrestle it to the ground . . . whatever it is.
Persistence and determination is also about learning. As we fight, we learn in the fighting. We learn how to fight, and how not to fight; both of which are terribly critical things to know. We learn how to fight more effectively and efficiently. We learn how to fight with dramatically improved strategy. We learn what exactly we’re fighting and what we’re not fighting so that we can expend our resources wisely. Through trial, error and sometimes great pain we learn how to fight in a manner that can actually derail hurtling trains and causes Goliath’s to stumble and fall. Those precious lessons are then incorporated into the battles ahead; the battles that loom beyond the horizons of tomorrow.
Discouragement in great part is the absence of persistence and determination. The absence of persistence and determine is often attributable to the absence of courage. Once we have these, we then can risk hope which allows us to embrace a vision that is something other than the defeat that is too often ours. Discouragement need not be. It is not the place we have to live. Trains and giants are formidable, but they are not invincible.
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC