Is it naïve to think that if you believe in yourself great things can happen?
Well, I guess I’m naïve. No matter where you are or what you’re going through, you have the power to change your condition.
When I was drinking like a fish, I never once blamed anyone. Like everyone else, I had factors in my childhood that probably contributed to the impulse to drink until I couldn’t remember anything. I was an unbeliever then, but I knew I wasn’t put on this earth to be a drunk my whole life. I held on to that idea. After I stopped drinking I realized that thought gave me hope and kept me alive. After I became saved, I understood that God planted that idea into my unbelieving mind to give me something to hold onto until he could wash away the guilt and shame of those years.
No matter who you are or where you are or what condition you’re in (even the most degraded condition!), amazing things can happen if you believe that you can improve your life. God has a purpose for everything we go through (good or bad), whether we believe he exists or not. (His plans can’t be thwarted by our stiff-necked rebellion.)
Even Christians may not fully understand why we suffer pain and turmoil, but we’re confident that our lives are guided by a living God whom we trust, One who knows things our puny and finite minds can’t even contemplate.
OK. On to the story. Some people grow up — through no fault of their own — with no father, little money, chaos, households that don’t stress the importance of education and excellence, etc. They start their young lives with overwhelming disadvantages, yet somehow manage to break the cycle of underachievement and poverty to contribute something of value to society.
I read a story about three black scientists. Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi (pictured), an astrophysicist and professor of physics (too cool!), said he grew up with no father and lived in bad neighborhoods. I don’t know if he or the other men are believers, since no one mentions a religious influence in his life, but their stories are inspirational nonetheless:
As a child living with his single mom, “I moved every year growing up,” Oluseyi says. “We didn’t live in the best neighborhoods, so I’d stay inside, reading a lot.” He also watched science shows on PBS. “I always thought scientists were really cool,” he says. “Albert Einstein was my original inspiration. I read about Einstein and relativity, and the weirdness of it all captured my attention from [ages] 10 to 16.” In high school, Oluseyi won a prize at the state science fair for his computer program that did relativity calculations.
He attended Tougaloo College, a black college in Mississippi, where he was one of only two students to major in physics. “It never occurred to me that I’d never seen a black physicist,” Oluseyi says. He just always believed he could do it. He earned a PhD from Stanford University in California in 1999.
Oluseyi’s advice to young people is: “Pursue your dreams without hesitation and always believe in yourself.” He has been able to live his dream and now holds eight patents in the technology field.
Oluseyi’s advice is simple, no smoke or mirrors: pursue your dreams and always believe in yourself. To become an astrophysicist takes more than that, of course. Dare I say you have to be smart and motivated and talented? The point is that your determination to achieve is a powerful factor. The idea that we’re here for a purpose is also very powerful. It was enough for me, and although many will disagree, it’s enough for every single person on the planet.
Being ambitious is good, but being a Christ follower should be the ultimate goal. God draws us in different ways. Think of it this way: maybe the desire for greater things in life foreshadows the desire for the one great thing that really matters: salvation.
How did/will God draw you?
Addendum: In response to the Work! post, Scott Ott writes:
LaShawn,
Your post on WORK! is terrific. It made me long to see a post from you on how theology affects work ethic.
It reminded me that work is not the penalty for Adam’s sin, the difficulty of work is part of that curse. You also made me long to hear a restatement of the Protestant work ethic, in which work is viewed as a calling (the meaning of the word ‘vocation’), and “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”
This is foundational stuff. Laziness is sin (one of my favorites), but how you work reflects glory to God, cutting to the heart of why we exist. As a pastor said last Sunday, we love the Sabbath rest, but we forget the other part of the command — “six days shall you work.” Of course, the fruits of our labors are also in the Lord’s hands, to be used to benefit others and fund the proclamation of God’s glory in Christ.
Anyway, all of this to say that it’s not just liberal politics that breeds an entitlement attitude: it’s bad theology (which, one might argue, goes hand-in-hand with liberal politics.) Without a Christian understanding of the meaning of life, it’s difficult to find compelling meaning in work. And when there’s no meaning in it, the only issue is money. And if the government will pay you to stay home (plowing under the crop, so to speak), then why not?
I’d love to hear from Christian readers on the subject of theology and the work ethic.
