Monday, December 10, 2007

Have I been daring greatly

Teddy Roosevelt's famous speech has always been a favorite of mine. It was brought to mind today in my devotions as I finished James in 5.19-20. I don't think I've been daring greatly. I need to. I've posted the speech below to encourage and inspire.

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, and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; But who does actually strive to do the deeds; Who knows the 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 worse, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. —Theodore Roosevelt
This is one thing I know I am passionate about. The fight. The failing. The winning. The blood, sweat, and tears. So cliche but so true. Lacrosse is such a huge part of my life that if all else fails well at least I know I can look back at my life and know that I had something. Something that made me so happy because it wasn’t easy and I worked hard to be the best that I could be.

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