”Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” --Aristotle
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” Abigail Adams
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As we come off of several days of catastrophic violence and destruction throughout the country, I have asked myself what is behind this? Why the deep reaction and so much anger at this moment? Frustration does not come from a vacuum. I have had much sympathy for the pain, frustration and grief that many have felt. Their frustration for feeling they aren’t heard or valued, have no one to give justice is understandable. And this frustration goes beyond skin color or culture. Many have been building up frustration from many stresses and pressures and fears stored up in the demands of life—job loss, insecurity, racial tension, values clashes and more.
Yet, I believe that at the bottom of many of the behaviors we have seen is the lack of a foundation upon which to rest life, a shaky ground upon which to build and live life. We see. this in some of the leaders, some of the police force, some of the protesters. Perhaps lack of character training, the absence of instruction and modeling of a noble life, and the deficiency of models of moral strength—the absence of seeing the love of Christ displayed to them personally. Love must be shown and felt, honor must be modeled and spoken about to take root.
We have also witnessed those who are reaching out in peace, in attempts to heal, to listen, to understand which has been a light amidst a dark time.
But at the root of it all, the longing for change is the absence of God in our midst. God brought to my life all that I longed for and needed—unconditional love, purpose, community, wisdom, protection, the instruction of how to live well, how to walk forward in all areas. Jesus became the epicenter for my whole life. A life without all of these that He provides is a life that is empty, unfulfilling, without hope, devoid of unconditional love, no moral fibre to guide actions and a loss of the sense of forever belonging. Without wholeness of life, leadership will be corrupted, actions will be skewed, consequences will be devastating.
A generation has not internally ingested the idea of how to honor others or other’s possessions because they have not been taught to value the lives of all human beings in their homes. They have been surrounded by violence on television and in media, the voice of snarky critical, often hypocritical people and have a vacuum in their souls to understand the need to honor all human beings. In the absence of biblical wisdom and instruction, people are subject to the drives of their anger and passion, and peer dependent on the voices and messages of culture. Souls are raw, needs are unmet and behavior expresses what frustration is going on internally. I do not want to diminish the reality of inequity or feeling invisible to the justice we all deeply long for.
Yet, for true understanding and compassion for people to take place, it must be built for many years, over many days, intentionally correcting heart attitudes and coxing love to come forward.
In other words, loving others as we love ourselves is developed over much time and through intentionality. We prayed how to enact this. My children grew up in the organic life in our home of hosting people from all over the world at our dinner table. We prepared our guest rooms for people from every culture, every sort of background. We spoke of the verses in scripture about God’s compassion, love, justice. We prayed for people who were in need. We learned of the desire of Jesus to set captives free and we read rousing tales of people who, throughout history, gave generously for the sake of others who were oppressed. We had people in our church in Vienna from 40 different nations and they were our friends. Learning to be free from racial baggage came over a life-time of living free of bias in the daily circumstances of our lives. It was a living process of learning and becoming.
If we hope to see long term changes in the ways people think about racism, equality, honor, civility, decorum, behavior, we need to understand that that shaping of a soul and the forming of convictions is a long term endeavor, not solved in limited acts of dramatic engagement.
Change does not usually come through one enormous dramatic event, but heart-deep change come from daily, weekly, monthly training and instruction over many years. Embracing virtue, loving godly character happens over a lifetime of practicing living a godly life.
Rembrandt became a master of light and a detailed painter, exquisite faces by training, practice, and years and years of painting, over and over and over again--practice. And so it is with any craft, skill, degree or accomplishment.
However, it is also true of character and a Christian testimony--
the character that is habituated to improving, developing integrity and relational inclusion grows by practice, stretching to work hard, to do the best, to exceed expectations which comes from daily practice and personal integrity
Those whose ideals are set high and aim, each day to pursue those ideals will have the opportunity to become excellent in any field, any philosophy of life.
This comes from an inner grid, the way one learns to see life and expects himself to live. We called this "self-government," when we trained excellence of character into the very fiber of our children's souls.
Recently, I spent hours on the phone with 3 of my children to discuss life, to see what they were thinking. Seeing them care greatly about issues of morality, faith; watching them understand the need to uphold God's character in the market places of life, hearing convictions and desires to impact their arenas for Christ, heartened this mama's soul.
Being together like this and discussing these important issues was reminiscent of all of the years we discussed truth, history, morality, the need for obedience, personal righteousness and a stewardship of the gospel and the inclusion of love for others. Their adult hearts were shaped by endless days of soul investment in our home when they were little. God would take my fish and loaves, my inadequate efforts and through His spirit, stir their hearts.
It is possible to watch God transform lives of little ones into adults who care deeply about the things of God. Passion, inspiration, obedience, a love for truth is learned by our children, family, friends, from seeing it modeled and being captured by the life coming from a real live person--you!
It has made me realize, again, that I would so love to help encourage, inspire, train women to own their lives by learning how to establish foundations of these important convictions in the lives of their own children.
I have been surrounded by mediocrity, compromise and substandard Christians behavior in several public arenas and personal situations lately. Our children have experienced the same in their worlds. I have asked myself, with the image of the living God imprinted upon my very being, shouldn't I, and all true believers, be able to call forth excellence and integrity as a reflection of Him in my life.
"As a man sows, so shall he reap." Galatians 6:7
Yet, excellence and integrity is a personal issue.
One can only become this way through a personal commitment, a vision of oneself, and a decision that says,
"Regardless of what is happening around me, I will be the best I can be, work the hardest I am able, pursue the highest standards--especially for my personal life where no one but God sees--because I have been bought with a price and have His Holy Spirit residing within. So my worship of Him requires that I pursue the standard of His Holiness, sacrifice and love as an affirmation of His reality in my life."
Whether as a mother training the character of children, filling their minds with excellent writers, artists, thinkers, or as a woman being a steward of every aspect of her life, one can only become excellent by stretching, determining to obey His still small voice and then using every resource to pursue bringing His light and imprint upon this world.
This labor of excellence, personally and in the lives of our children, may/will take many long years--but if we are not committed to pursuing whatever it takes to build these convictions, then what hope does our future have--and even more, how can we represent Him, who has given all?
Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." We are called to become leaders that others can follow and emulate. With every year of faith, there should be more of Him reflecting through our lives. It is not a choice, it is a call on our lives. We cannot say, "I am a Christian, but I think I will make "c's or d's" in my character choices. We aim high because the love of Christ compels us.
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