PARTICIPATION MANDATORY

PRACTICE: Can you think of a situation where you failed by lack of participation?

Losing, winning, victory, failure, change…all have one primary requirement… participation.

If one is losing the battle with social media? – participation required – the app doesn’t open without engagement. If one is claiming victory over a bad habit, daily participation is required to keep the bad habit at bay even beyond the conquest. If one is winning the battle of the bulge – participation is required in the form of pushing the plate away or making better choices. If one wants to change an attitude about something/someone, participation is REQUIRED. You get the point.

“Good things come to those who wait,” is a quote familiar to most of us. I have often pondered the truth of the statement. I fully understand that waiting can be a form of participation. I also understand that waiting can be a scapegoat for doing nothing, for waiting on a bolt of lightning to bring the desired result. So, I modified the quote, “Good things come to those who actively wait – actively participate."

Here’s my example. I write multiple blogs at one sitting. From the outside looking in there is nothing more that happens. My time of actual pen to paper (yes pen to paper, I am unable to write my thoughts using the computer) is the manifestation of countless hours of thinking, illustrations and ideas that have run through the filters of my brain…mental participation before the physical begins.

So, what about you? From the moment you become conscious in the morning until you retire to that state in the evening, your participation is required to produce the outcome – desired or otherwise. There is no getting around that fact. The question that you and I face multiple times per day – will my participation produce victory and change or failure and disappointment? Even then there aren’t any guarantees – that’s what makes life exciting.

1 Peter 4:10

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---Life either happens for you or to you, either way you are a participant.