Green Means Go
Green Means Go
In 1910, an Englishman named Arnold Bennett wrote a little book on time-management. But his eloquent words apply powerfully to Kingdom Building today. On Saturday night, I asked you to imagine having a green light from your pastor. If you could make a difference for the Kingdom in your community, what would you do? If you could share the love of Christ in a real and natural way with a particular neighborhood or network, how would you do it?
And from that brief conversation, I heard some great ideas. Now what?
Bennett’s words about taking hold of your daily allotment of time apply to those “green light ideas” for the sake of the Kingdom. He writes as a man speaking to men. There’s no pretending or sugarcoating. And yet, his words are exhilarating.
The most important preliminary to the task […] is the calm realization of the extreme difficulty of the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands. I cannot too strongly insist on this. If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better give up hope at once. If you are not prepared for discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down again and resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence. It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and somber? And yet I think it is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing of the will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by the fire. “Well,” you say, “assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume that I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous remarks; how do I begin?” Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no magic method of beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a swimming-pool and wanting to jump into the cold water should ask you, “How do I begin to jump?” you would merely reply, “Just jump. Take hold of your nerves, and jump.” As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. Therefore no object is served in waiting till next week, or even until tomorrow. You may fancy that the water will be warmer next week. It won’t. It will be colder. (text public domainhttp://www.gutenberg.org/files/2274/2274-h/2274-h.htm)
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