‘There is a time for everything… a time to weep and a time to laugh.’ Ecclesiastes 3:14 NIV
Optimists tend to believe that life is mostly good; pessimists, that it’s mostly bad. Life is both. And only those who embrace that truth are able to find fulfilment. Why? Because those who accept it but don’t embrace it become apathetic, meeting every difficulty with a shrug and a sigh. They may survive, but they won’t be successful. To succeed you must be proactive, in bad times as well as good. If you examine the lives of successful people you’ll discover they always do what’s right no matter how they feel, and by doing right-they end up feeling good. On the other hand, unsuccessful people tend to wait to feel good before they do what’s right. As a result, they neither do what’s right nor feel good. Often you won’t feel like doing the right thing, but you need to do it anyway. Nelson Mandela said: ‘I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one finds many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.’ If you always do the right thing-despite how you feel, despite what others may say or do in response-you will be satisfied with yourself. And that, at the end of the day, will do a lot to determine whether you feel fulfilled.
SoulFood: Col 3-4, Philemon, Luke 23:44-56, Pr 21:22-27
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2012
