never give up… never surrender…

Woody Allen is credited with the quote:

80% of life is just showing up…

Don’t know that that quote is accurate – or whether he said “80% of success” or “80% of life” as I found both quotes represented & attributed to him. By him. But I digress.

The events of a life surrounded by people lead me to ponder – – many people don’t show up. And/or they don’t follow through. Why?

Maybe its a fear of failure that causes them to disqualify themselves or remove themselves from the process they’re in, in advance. Not measuring up. Being rejected.

Perhaps its just a symptom – not showing up is just the result of someone that never intended to show up in the first place, but that didn’t have the wherewithal or the fortitude to say so on the front end – (a by product of “fear of man” aka – people pleasing. Meaning – I’ll commit to do, try, be a part of something though I have no intention of following through, because I don’t know how to tell you no… And it will be so much easier on the other side of this if I just make an excuse as why I couldn’t make it…”)

I subscribe to the belief that life is a process – & one of the things that keeps me going when everything in me wants to quit, roll up in a ball in my darkened closet with the door shut, & hide behind my pile of old sweatshirts is the encouragement of Galatians 6 –

Those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.

And so I will keep going. I will show up. I will follow through. And if for some reason I don’t, & I fall down, I will get back up, dust off, & keep going.

9 thoughts on “never give up… never surrender…

  1. i felt like no showing up this sunday. mostly because i stayed up too late but then also some inner battles going on there. Jesus help me to keep showing up cause sometimes I do want to just curl up in that ball and or just stay in bed. i am glad i did- show up that is.
    btw- totally unrelated to your blog but what was the character on stargate that you like again, col shepard was it??

  2. Jack O’Neill was my favorite – played by Richard Dean Anderson (aka MacGyver)

    Then Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks)…

    Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder, of Farscape fame) is also a fave.

    John Shepard is from Stargate Atlantis, which is a bit different… but it is the only Stargate on the TeeVee nowadays, at least until the “Stargate: Ark of Truth” movie comes out in March.

    Yes friends, you just experienced a Nerd Alert.

  3. okay louie- we can all be a bit nerdy about the things we enjoy. i think it’s great, and i am on the hunt.

  4. thanks for the encouragement. for whatever reason, it seems like a time when i really need it. it may be the annual winter funk that i have heard about, i’m not sure if that’s what it is or not. i sure do spend a lot of time wishing i could curl up and hide from the world right now . . .

    and gordon still insists “blister in the sun” is not about masturbation. i’m trying to understand this.

  5. that’s pretty interesting. i’ve been hearing alot about the fear of failure lately. it’s pretty common in our society. there’s also something of the fear of success as well. maybe people don’t show up because they’re afraid that they will actually accomplish something or realize something, or be changed… well, whatever fear it may be, it’s mearly a feeling. we have control over our feelings, and control over whether or not we will submit to a fear, regardless of what it may be.

  6. In my days selling cars, the bosses always told me that I was great & I’d go far. I thought this was what they told everyone until I heard what they told the other employees. I asked why they thought that & it was because I was always there & did what I was told. Shocker. Do what your expected to do & you’ll do fine. Weird.

  7. Brintus Maximus – glad to help. We don’t want the funk to be the boss. And definitely don’t want to hand off directional leadership to my feelings & emotions; though they’re real, & not eeevil in & of themselves, they sure skew ones perspective.

    And, I heard an interview w/Gordon – said that he liked a girl in Jr. High, but she laughed at him & commented about how small his hands were. At that point, he concluded that if his hands were just bigger, he’d have had a chance with the girl. (Big hands, I know you’re the one…)

    JamiH- nice insights! – sometimes not showing up means I am avoiding change – even if it is success, the change could come at a cost that I just don’t know I want to endure… Control through inaction, kind of a passive/aggressive means of holding out for the state of “no pain.”

    MM- car sales – I thought it had something to do with your incredible resilience, persistence, & focus? you know, in addition to your love of a schedule & knowing what you’re going to do each day…

  8. I hate it when you get a couple versions of a quote. How do you know which one is legit? I like that quote from Woody! Isn’t it true. 80% of a successful life is just showing up…how about that variety on quotables.

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