Christian Living

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday November 6, 2008

A man who calls himself my enemy, though I do not return the affectionate term once said, "Larry Lilly is an overachiever." This was said rather smugly and meant as a put down. I embrace the idea of being an overachiever in that such a person is one who accomplishes more than his natural ability would indicate is possible. I know literally hundreds of people with a better education, higher IQ, and better family background who have hardly accomplished getting out of bed over the course of their life, due to the inability to doggedly stay at a project or endure unreal pressure in a situation long enough to accomplish anything of value for at least a small segment for the race.

The gifted preacher of the 19th Century Charles Spurgeon wrote: "With patient persistence the caterpillar reached the ark." This quality in a caterpillar is missing in many gifted humans; thus they are more acquainted with failure than achievement.

In the course of the work the Lord has given to me to strive at on this earth I meet many gifted men and women who have lost the spark in their life due to boredom, as one man told me this week, "I get so bored I am numb."

The successful Christian life or any life for that matter will have as a primary ingredient the "something" of importance to you to get up and get going. Blessed ones, like me, have a dream and this dream honors the Lord, gets my motor running and I often wish it were not necessary to eat or sleep, as I hate to stop for these reminders that I am but a mortal.

I believe it is possible to live life in such a way as to be fulfilled in doing something of value to God, to others and for yourself. The Bible, as do many mere philosophers, instructs us along the line of having a dream, often an impossible one, or as song from the days of my childhood taught, "There's a star up there that's beckoning, along the heavenly way."

Joseph Campbell made a statement along this line:


"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living."

Often the “pull” that is mistaken for chemical addiction, or addiction to others is in reality the pull of the path God has laid out for you in this life, and due to any number of blinding obstacles you fail to see it, or lack the faith, the courage to step out of your comfort zone and go for it. Thus, a life missing the path of bliss, will endure a life of inner pain due to spending your time, talent and treasure on the wrong path.

The bliss that Campbell wrote of was expressed in the song, “Follow The Gleam” by Helen Miller especially in the phrase:

"Follow, follow, follow the gleam Of the chalice that is the Grail."

The "Holy Grail" of the Christian life is identifying the calling God has for you and diving in.

John 8:12 "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE