If not you, then who? September 20, 2007

“Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”
- Henry Van Dyke

I saw a poster with this quote hanging in my church one day last year. I had just lost my job and was wondering what I was going to do with my life now. It’s true that desperate times call for desperate measures, for a zillion zany ideas tend to race through your head when you are feeling broke and panicked. Job listings for things you would never dream of doing start to at least look interesting, if not entirely appealing – If for no other reason than simply offering the opportunity to keep the cash flowing. I remember sitting in my pew during mass and staring at that poster. “The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” Talk about a sign. Literally. I was struck with the notion that I don’t have to be the best at what I love to do. I just have to do what I love to do. Every day. Any of us can choose (and all too often we do) to resign ourselves to complacency, opting to walk the path of least resistance for practicality’s sake. More often than not we are simply going along to get along and the desires our soul has for us fast become pipe dreams, wishful thinking or just plain foolish. This path on which you’re walking… is it not paved with a false sense of sure footedness? Does your path not present a veritable obstacle course of exhaustive challenges? Is it a path of convenience? A path of safety? A path of (in)security? Your soul is tired of walking uphill. The real challenge now, the true call, is to step off the path and begin your own.