We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us!
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
Category: VOCATION
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Others fear failure:
Whenever such a person thinks of doing some business, he fears it may fail or face hindrances, plotting of competitors, or dishonesty of partners. If he is poor he fears becoming needy, and if rich fears robbery, and in all cases he keeps afraid.
Some people fear dangers.
If such a person takes an aeroplane he fears some calamity would happen, and he remembers such things published in newspapers. In any means of transportation he is in fear of accidents. All dark memories come to his mind in this respect and this makes him always afraid.
There is a type of people who fear their own weakness.
Such person fears his inability, his forgetfulness, his weakness before the power of his competitors or adversaries, and his inability to withstand. This makes him lose his self-confidence, the spirit of bravery, and the power to take an initiative. The image of inability and failure is always before his eyes. He even fears sin and feels unable to resist it.
Such fear causes a person confusion, disturbance and trouble, and may paralyze his ability to work.
It will have a bad effect on his soul and nerves. Fear will appear on his features, on his looks, on his voice and on his movements. He will tremble, become pale, and his heart beats increase. Everybody will see his fear which appears in his behavior, his hesitation, his inability to take decisions, and his seeking protection.
Fear may lead some to dejection. They put before them the words, “anyone who finds me will kill me.” (Gen 4: 4). A spiritual person, on the other hand, does not fear, but peace reigns over his heart, giving him confidence.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit
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The more you have a clear goal, the more you are settled and balanced.
The brain functions the best when there is a goal that the person is pursuing. The higher the goal, the more positive the emotions.
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Your glory is in your personality, not in your position or authority or outer appearance. Your glory is in your essence, in your spirituality, in your nature, in your sense, in your wisdom, in all that is found within your heart of virtues and good qualities.
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“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.”
―Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird -
The question in every life: How to truthfully discern what is from God what is obedience to Him (Lord, what do You want from me?) and what is from “this world” (and from the one behind it)? Questions about one’s calling. My own life is that of a churchman. But every year I feel more and more burdened-from weakness. Or is my real calling something different? I truly suffer from constantly asking myself this question. I live a double life-one consuming the other. Does God want this? Is this the condition of my salvation? When I ask this question, I have no answer. And I am 55!
What else is needed? Look—all of you who rush about in vain. Do not think that something else is needed. See the fight of light with darkness, the descent into death. It is at the same time the revelation of the power of evil and its destruction. That is where one would find the answer which everyone is seeking and often finding in pitiful idols. Lazarus and Palms: “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice…” at the very beginning of Holy Week and at the same time, the onslaught of darkness. (“I am deeply grieved, even to death…” and
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) and of light (“Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in Him…”) up to the bright silence of Holy Saturday. Where else should one search for the solution to problems? Where else can one see, feel the only ray of light which illumines and solves everything?
What God reveals to people is unheard, impossible, and the tragedy consists of this deafness. And this revelation can no longer penetrate Western life without ripping it apart. What is revealed surpasses and therefore tears apart life-the gift of joy “which nobody will take away from you.” Genuine Christianity is bound to disturb the heart with this tearing-that is the force of eschatology. But one does not feel it in these smooth ceremonies where everything is neat, right, but without eschatological “other worldliness.” This is, maybe, the basic spiritual quality of any bourgeois state of mind. It is closed to the sense of tragedy to which the very existence of God condemns us.
I don’t know. It’s so difficult to express it, but I clearly feel that here is a different perception of life, and the bourgeois state (religious, theological, spiritual, pious, cultured, etc.) is blind to something essential in Christianity.
—Alexander Schmemann
Journals -
153. YOUR COMFORT AND THE COMFORT OF OTHERS
A noble person does not build his comfort on the weariness of others. But the noble one is he who sacrifices his comfort in order to comfort others.
A mother might feel comfort in having her son by her side while the son, at the same time, might find comfort in being far from home. He might travel, migrate, become a monk or live on his own with a wife. Here, the noble mother would let him go without insisting on her comfort by his side.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Words of Spiritual Benefit Vol. IV
SO GOOD QUOTES 