The Narrow Path

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

-Attributed to Frank A. Clark.

"But I'm Still Growing!"

"Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts at scaling Mount Everest before he finally succeeded. After one attempt he stood at the base of the giant mountain and shook his fist at it. "I'll defeat you yet," he said in defiance. "Because you're as big as you're going to get - but I'm still growing."

From Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat.

"I Never Failed Anything in my Life!"

Carol and I are reading John Ortberg's If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. It's built around Matthew 14:25-32. In the first chapter, he poses the question of whether Peter "failed" when he got out of the boat, walked a ways toward Jesus, and then began to sink.

Part of his answer to the question includes this illustration:

Somebody once asked Winston Churchill what most prepared him to risk political suicide by speaking out against Hitler during the years of appeasement in the mid-1930s, then to lead Great Britain against Nazi Germany. Churchill said it was the time he had to repeat a grade in elementary school.

"You mean you failed a year in grade school?" he was asked.

"I never failed anything in my life. I was given a second opportunity to get it right."