Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 377 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
The Cycles and Seasons of Life (4) – The Value of Attitude
Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 377 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder on an aspect of life that will help us to create and grow our living legacy. Currently, we are in a multi-part series of exploring the Cycles and Seasons of Life. Today we will hike the Value of Attitude Trail.
We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. By this weekend, I should have all the upstairs woodwork, floors, and the front stairway coated with polyurethane. This has been quite a feat with a total of 11 doorways upstairs. Even after living here for nearly 30 years, I had not thought about the number of doorways. With applying polyurethane to that many doors and trim, it became painfully obvious that there were a lot. They do look nice, and the time invested now will bring pleasure to many for generations to come. We do consider this our passion project for the extended family and part of our living legacy.
This weekend and the first part of next week, I should be able to finish up the back stairway, and the downstairs hallway and foyer. There is much to complete before July 1st when the Chamberlain reunion starts. We will accomplish as much as we can, leave the rest in God’s hands, and realize that we can continue on as we have opportunity in the months ahead. We are blessed that in this season of life we have time and opportunity to gradually work on the restoration of The Big House.
As we think about life, let us head out on the 4th segment of our trek today to explore The Value of Attitudes within:
The Cycles and Seasons of Life (4)
Regardless of your own religious or intellectual inclinations, it is difficult to believe that humans somehow came about by random chance and circumstances. For all of us, what we believe about the origin of life, and particularly humans, is based purely on faith. Scientific proof requires observation and testing. No one is alive to verify what really happened in the ages past. Recorded human history is only from the past few thousand years. For me, it is more logical to have faith in a divine creator opposed to random chance and circumstances. I am personally convinced that the entire universe, including the earth and everything living on it, were created by God. Humans are a special creation since we are created in God’s image as describe in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Based on this belief, you were created to grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God and His precepts. In light of your eternal purpose and existence, even if you live beyond 100, your life is just a speck in time. As it says in James 4:14, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”
Your life on earth is but a mere stepping stone within your eternal existence. How your earthly trek finishes is based on the choices and decisions that you make each day. The impact of those choices will remain throughout eternity.
The more that I study, read, ponder, and speculate about people, their deeds, and their destiny, I become more deeply convinced that it is by God’s design that our natural destiny is to grow, to succeed, to prosper, and to find happiness while here on earth. True happiness is the joy that we can only experience when we accept and follow God’s provisions for us through His Son Jesus. It is then we will be able to experience God’s purpose based on what Jesus told us in John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
In most of the world today, opportunity abounds, and it is within your reach to find within your own life a personal realization of the very best of all that exists, which very well may include personal wealth. Contrary to the teaching of some religious circles, wealth is not bad; poverty is bad. Poverty, in most situations, is self-inflicted and represses individuals or groups of individuals who have chosen not to use their God-given talents and abilities to grow. They choose, rather, to allow those who have discovered and used their talents to take care of them.
I realize in the Beatitudes it states that God blesses those who are truly poor if they recognize their need for Him. The problem that appears to be most prevalent today with those who are poor is they are poor because of unwise financial decisions or lack of motivation. When Jesus recited the Beatitudes, it was a time when many of his listeners were slaves or indentured servants. They had a limited opportunity to advance themselves. That is not the case in most of the world today. I realize there are specific situations where being in poverty may be out of a person’s control, but to remain poor, especially in the western cultures is one of choice. Even in the face of difficulty, even severe difficulty; a person must make a total commitment to their cause, calling, or occupation in order to rectify their poverty. This situation is sad because many never even try to advance their lot in life through effort.
Imagine George Washington deciding not to try during the Revolutionary War because it looked bad across the Delaware. Imagine Abraham Lincoln giving up because he was embarrassed as a soldier, failed as a businessman, or was soundly defeated at the polls by his peers. Imagine George Washington Carver, born into slavery if he had remained a slave in his mind instead of becoming one of the foremost crop researchers and scientists of all time. Imagine John Kennedy deciding not to go to the moon—to make America first, both in our own eyes as well as in the eyes of the rest of the world. I could go on with hundreds of people who overcame severe difficulties and went on to make a huge impact on the world. Imagine, if you will, the world without the contributions of these, and other great people who overcame adversity with talent, desire, and total determination to leave behind the world slightly better than they found it.
If I have failed to make my point, let it be known that God, did not intend for you to fail or wallow in poverty, self-pity, self-martyrdom, or mediocrity in any form. Such is not the grand design for you. God made you in His Image to be like Him. You are blessed with all those raw materials necessary for progress, such as imagination, ideas, inspiration, and undeveloped intellectual capacity…and that capacity is without limitation. The only limitation placed on your abilities is your inability to easily recognize your unlimited nature.
It does take effort to become aware of your staggering and limitless abilities. It takes effort to become enthusiastic over your life purpose, a cause, or an occupation. It takes effort to continue when your results—as well as your friends—tell you to give up trying. It takes effort to feel right about everything that happens, the joys as well as the sorrows of life. And it also takes effort to learn to love yourself above all others, especially when you are so consciously aware of your failures, doubts, and tragedies. Your capacity to love others is dependent on your capacity to love yourself. The Apostle Paul quoted Jesus in Galatians 5:14 telling us, “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
It does not, however, take effort to fail. It requires little else than a slowly deteriorating attitude about your present, your future, and about yourself. It is ironic that one of the few things in this life over which you have total control is your own attitude, and yet most of us live our entire life behaving as though we have no control whatsoever. By your attitude, you can decide to read or not to read. By your attitude, you can decide to try or give up. By your attitude, you blame yourself for your failure, or you foolishly blame others. Your attitude determines whether you love or hate, tell the truth or lie, take action or procrastinate, advance or recede, and by your own attitude you and you alone actually decide whether to succeed or fail.
How incredibly unique that a God, who would create the complex and immense universe, would create the human race and give to those humans the free choice that would permit them to select their own achievement or their own destruction.
This strange but all-knowing God gave to us a delicately balanced sphere called earth, and on it, he placed the intelligent human who would either develop it or destroy it. How terribly fascinating that God would leave both projects—earth as well as humans—unfinished! Across the rivers and streams, God built no bridges; He left the pictures unpainted, the songs unsung, the books unwritten, and space unexplored. For the accomplishment of those things, God created the unfinished human who, within his heart and mind, has the capacity to do all these things and more, depending upon his own choice. Attitude determines choice, and choice determines results. All that we are and all that we can become, for the most part, has indeed been left to us.
At this very moment in time, as you listen to or read these words, your attitude has determined what you are. Your enthusiasms, intensity, faith in yourself, patience with yourself and others, and childish excitement about your boundless future is a result of that single word—attitude. On the seventh day, the work of God was finished, and He rested from all his creative work. The work of creating your better future has just begun. For as long as you continue to draw breath, you have the chance to finish that work, and in so doing, complete the work in and for the earth and for yourself that God has left for you to accomplish.
We have come to the end of The Value of Attitude trail on today’s trek. We have much to consider and ponder for today. On our next Philosophy Friday, we will hike the trail of The Constant, Predictable, Pattern of Change as we continue on our trek of exploring the Cycles and Seasons of Life.
Our next trek will be Motivation Monday as we continue with A Guide to Motivation. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeart Radio, and Google Play so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.
As we take this trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!