If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”― C.S. Lewis
Sometimes we think we must do great deeds in order to change the world, or at least I do. I feel so limited by my small realm of influence yet I feel comforted by Edmund Burke's quote
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
"You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys
with people whom he likes, but in conversations with those he cares
nothing about on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at
all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering,
but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing
activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing
given in return, so that at last he may say, as one of my own patients
said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life
in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked”. The Christians describe
the Enemy as one “without whom Nothing is strong”. And Nothing is very
strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins
but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows
not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is
only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in
whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of
reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but
which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too
weak and fuddled to shake off.
It is so easy for us to be distracted by school work, earning money, books we just have to read, keeping up with the latest fashion, gossiping about neighbors and allowing the world to pass us by. C.S Lewis had much to say about this in his book "The Screwtape Letters" as he shares communications from a chief devil to his nephew. This quote comes from the letter concerning distractions. I feel it very significant how a devil describes the road to hell.
You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
Don't allow yourself to be distracted from the changes taking place in the world today. Take time to serve a neighbor or to learn something new today. With all the negative hype concerning our police officers, take time to express your appreciation for sacrificing time with their families to keep the streets a little safer, even when they ticket you for speeding, they do it because high speed collisions are messy things. We are blessed to have people who are willing to go into harms way for our protection.
Do not allow yourself to come to the end of an era only to realize that you have let moments of appreciation, learning and growth to pass you by doing as the man in the letter said "doing neither what I ought nor what I liked..." that is a painful regret to face. As I was reminded today, if you live your standards, be proactive and follow the Spirit you will never regret where life may take you.
