鈥淐huck Norris does not sleep, he waits.鈥澛�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 There is a subtle message here: we should live our lives so that we can鈥檛 wait for the new day to get back to our calling.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Charles Johnson poses this scenario: Imagine a gun was held to my head and somebody was going to pull the trigger as soon as the last word of the last paragraph was finished. Now if I can write out of the sense that I鈥檓 going to die as soon as the work is done, then I will write with urgency, honesty, courage, and without flinching.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淚f a work is written like that, then I want to read it,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淚鈥檒l say, 鈥楾his is serious. This person is not fooling around. 鈥his work is the writer saying something, because he or she feels that if it isn鈥檛 said, it will never be said.鈥欌��
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In Old Testament scripture Job was so convinced of the eternal realities and life in heaven that even after all his trials (losing his livestock, home, family and even his health) he said: 鈥淥 that my words were written down! And that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last鈥n my flesh I shall see God鈥� (Job 19:23-26).
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Job鈥檚 proclamation is FAITH. This is living and writing with intensity. This is all real and all powerful.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In William Faulkner鈥檚 鈥淣obel Peace Prize for Literature Acceptance Speech鈥� he challenges authors to write about 鈥溾�ove and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.鈥� Failing this one 鈥溾�rites not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A writer must strive 鈥溾�o create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before鈥� the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat鈥� Faulkner says.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Bertrand Russell sought three passions to govern his life: 鈥渢he longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind鈥�.聽
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淚 have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy 鈥ecause it relieves loneliness and鈥� because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Knowledge and love lead us upward, Russell contends, but pity brings us back to earth. The cries of pain from our fellow man make a mockery of what human life should be.
We can live our lives 鈥渋n the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social,鈥� Russel says. To care for what is noble, what is beautiful and gentle 鈥渨ill cause hate and greed and envy to die because there is nothing to nourish them.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 God has given us natural gifts and talents. Through education and perseverance we can develop these gifts and accomplish many good things. Jesus nourishes the talents within us with even greater, spiritual gifts.
