Step into the Arena

"It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles

or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs, who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcomings

but who does actually strives to do the deeds

who knows great enthusiasms,

the great devotions;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. . ."

- Theodore Roosevelt (April 23, 1910)

 

 

I get that I should be "in the arena". "Being about the Father's business", I've heard it called. Sometimes arenas remind me of lion's dens. At this point in my life, I guess I don't know what someone could do to me that would matter so much, but maybe I still am a little "lion shy". My eyes are turning from the challenge of doing to the challenge of daring. Paul, in the Bible, talked about spending himself for the gospel. Isn't daring more for younger people as they have their whole life before them? Maybe there's a bit of dare in every season of life.

 

When I was a kid, I lived in the country. During the summer, my friends and I would head up the creek to a place we had carved out as a swimming hole. We dammed up the stream a little below the hole, and actually removed some of the rocks from the hole to have a bit of a pool. Oh how we all loved to head up to the swimming hole on a hot day. There were so many dares during that time. Should we just take the trail to the hole or do we think we can make it across the marshy muddy pasture without losing our shoes? Should we just run and jump into the hole or walk in more carefully in case someone has tossed in rocks we don't know about? At that time in my life, those dares seemed daunting. I think I passed several of those daring tests.

 

Now, it seems I am a bit discontent. I think I haven't dared much lately. I get a shot of adrenaline with a dare. Somehow I want my dare to come from a draw of the Holy Spirit, rather than a duty born from the habits of the past. Is it the sameness of the past which I avoid? Is it that I see others daring greatly but I don't know how to begin? Just as the swimming hole was my afternoon arena, I am now wondering into what arena will my dare be spent?