The passage below is taken from GMSJ Sunday Worship Service bulletin dated 28th April 2002.
The world that we live in today wants a shortcut for everything. Shortcut to reach a place, shortcut to exercise, shortcut to get our essential vitamins, shortcut to pass exams (referring to model exam answers, rote learning and the like, NOT copying or plagiarism), shortcut to fame, shortcut to rich and glamour, shortcut to marriage and everything else. This could be the result of the 'flattening' of the world, quoting a term by Thomas L. Friedman in his book "The World Is Flat". After all, information is accessible at our fingertips, so what is the reason that we couldn't get things done fast, fast, fast?
This is what the current generation is about, and possibly all that most of them is interested in. Tell them to work things out? They'll ask you what's the point when they could easily obtain the final answer by typing few words on the internet. Tell them to wait for a while before things get fixed? They'll ask you why can't it be fixed immediately? Because everything seems to be so accessible, so convenient, people are moving at a pace that is either too fast or too slow.
The thing is, I'm very much an old school person. I prefer to enjoy the process than chasing after the final product (or what is more commonly known nowadays as the 'outcome'). Of course, the results are important, but sometimes we gain more when we immerse ourselves in the process too. After all, if we were to take the highway all the time, how would we ever get to see the roosters crossing the quaint lanes?
Food for thought: If God so-called advocates shortcuts, how would things have been? Would the New Testament still have been the same? Note that I'm not questioning God here. On the contrary, I'm posing a question to ask ourselves if we have been moving at the right pace.
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
Charles F. Kettering, a noted scientist and inventor believed that the easiest way to overcome defeat was simply to ignore completely the possibility of failure and to keep forging ahead. He once gace an address to Denison University on his theory. He told how he had once given a tough project assignment to a young research worker in a laboratory at General Motors. He wanted to see how the man would react to a difficult problem so he kept from him note about the project that had been filed in the lab's library. These notes, written by expert researchers, included various acts of statistics and formulas that proved the assignment the young man had been given was impossible to do.
The young research worker set his mind to the project, and worked virtually night and day for weeks. He refused to give up or think the project impossible. One day he came confidently to Kettering to show his work. He had succeeded in doing the impossible!
A little extra time ... a little extra effort ... a little extra care ... a little extra attention sometimes makes all the difference between success and failure, and not only that, but the difference between good and great.
The world that we live in today wants a shortcut for everything. Shortcut to reach a place, shortcut to exercise, shortcut to get our essential vitamins, shortcut to pass exams (referring to model exam answers, rote learning and the like, NOT copying or plagiarism), shortcut to fame, shortcut to rich and glamour, shortcut to marriage and everything else. This could be the result of the 'flattening' of the world, quoting a term by Thomas L. Friedman in his book "The World Is Flat". After all, information is accessible at our fingertips, so what is the reason that we couldn't get things done fast, fast, fast?
This is what the current generation is about, and possibly all that most of them is interested in. Tell them to work things out? They'll ask you what's the point when they could easily obtain the final answer by typing few words on the internet. Tell them to wait for a while before things get fixed? They'll ask you why can't it be fixed immediately? Because everything seems to be so accessible, so convenient, people are moving at a pace that is either too fast or too slow.
The thing is, I'm very much an old school person. I prefer to enjoy the process than chasing after the final product (or what is more commonly known nowadays as the 'outcome'). Of course, the results are important, but sometimes we gain more when we immerse ourselves in the process too. After all, if we were to take the highway all the time, how would we ever get to see the roosters crossing the quaint lanes?
Food for thought: If God so-called advocates shortcuts, how would things have been? Would the New Testament still have been the same? Note that I'm not questioning God here. On the contrary, I'm posing a question to ask ourselves if we have been moving at the right pace.
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