Blog 587 – 03.30.2017

Well Received

It is particularly pleasing when your gift, your offering, your talent, your art is well received. I know that I am always happy to know that a talk, a written piece, a poem, a song, or a lesson is well received. But sadly they are not always, not even when one gives it their very best. Many quit, give up, or cash in there chips when the praise, the recognition, the reception is not forth coming for their efforts. You must have some motivation other than praise and acceptance to keep trying, to keep putting yourself out there, to keep honing and polishing your craft in the face of rejection or worse obscurity. There are so many out there competiting for attention. I am reminded of a quote, “Not to the strong is the battle, not the the swift is the race but to the true and the faithful victory is promised through grace.”

Tallent is nice, ability counts for something, but grace under pressure, under fire, always wins out over mere talent or ability. There are way better speakers, writers, singer/songwriters and teachers than I am but I know I will achieve my goals and succeed for three reasons :

1. I will be true to my own voice.
2. I will be faithful to keep at it till I say, write, sing, and teach all I have in me.
3. And most importantly I have been given grace enough that no matter how many times I slip and fall, get my tongue tangled, choose my words wrong, hit a wrong or sour note, forget the lyric, or find it for a moment impossible to get the lesson across- to just keep at it and leave the results to Someone far more able than I alone am.

We erroneously think that we have to get it right to be well received. Not so, the most well received people ever, got it wrong countless times and some even died having it so wrong on many counts. But love is the difference. They were loved and were therefore accepted and well received. I love the theme song to the long running comedy series, The Golden Girls. The lyric goes:

“Thank you for being a friend
Travel down the road and back again
My hat is off won’t you stand up and take a bow.”
(And the lines that always brings a tear to my eye.)
“And when we both get older with walking canes and hair of gray
Have no fear, even though it’s hard to hear,
I will stand real close and say,
Thank you for being a friend.”

Without a doubt the greatest recognition of all is to have one who knows you very well hug you and say, “I am so proud of you my friend.” That is being well received.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White