Encouragement

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday August 15, 2005

I am one of the world's premier procrastinators. Mom says I was born several days past the due date. I guess I just put off leaping out of the womb and sliding down the birth canal. My wife, The Great Blonde is cut from the same cloth having shown up for our wedding 41 years ago twenty minutes later than planned. Of course this was my mistake because in order to get to the church she and her mother had to drive past several strip malls. When this was explained, even the minister thought this was a legitimate reason. I often wonder how different my life would be if there had been one of our modern gigantic malls on the path to the church. I would most likely be an old bachelor.

The Swiss writer and philosopher, Henri Frederic Amiel, descended from Huguenots a courageous people recognized as such in a brief article:

'O.I.A. Roche, in his book The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots, writes that "Huguenot" is "a combination of a Flemish and a German word. In the Flemish corner of France, Bible students who gathered in each other's houses to study secretly were called Huis Genooten, or 'house fellows', while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed Eid Genossen, or 'oath fellows', that is, persons bound to each other by an oath. Gallicized into 'Huguenot', often used deprecatingly, the word became, during two and a half centuries of terror and triumph, a badge of enduring honor and courage."'

Henri seemed to grasp the great detriment to achievement when he wrote:

"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret."

One of my pet reasons for procrastinating has long been the desire to see the end from the beginning. One preacher asks his motivational audiences the intriguing question; 'What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?'

One reason the question is interesting is because you cannot know the end from the beginning, you, in all realms of life must exercise faith. Faith in Christ does deliver you to the truth that He will complete you, but you cannot know whether the drought will ruin the corn.

We can and should do everything in our power to make good decisions that are based on the best information possible, but even then we will miss it now and then, and our friends, even loved ones will wonder how we were so stupid.

Mr. Amiel hit the nail on the head and we must, if we progress, accept a little regret along the way. Of course the biggest regret is to fail to attempt anything of value. Far too many people attempt to live in such a way as to 'tiptoe safely to the grave.' Such a lifestyle is not living at all but simply playing dead for the entirety of life. Hey, you will be dead long enough, so there is no point in acting like a cadaver in the present.

Pray, move on in the light you have, and trust the Lord. If you 'fail' do not spend too much time in the pit of regret; get up and walk on in the light available. Now.

Larry Lilly Copyright 2005 Use with credit

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