I’m not one to quote people (Scripture is an exception) but having passed through a sign outside some business establishment on River Road for months now, I decided to dwell on it, oblivious to the fact that the quote was supposedly coming from Albert Einstein. I suppose taking in a biblical worldview really changes one’s perspective especially when I think about 1 Corinthians 3:19,
“For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,””
It doesn’t mean I don’t take the value of the quote. I agree wholeheartedly with it for the fact that it’s something I consider as a personal philosophy long before having seen it. People who know me could attest to this. While people are so quick to attribute the origin of a quote to a “brilliant” mind, would that mean the concept still has to be credited to the supposed first person who coined it even though someone had no previous knowledge of something and came up with it or something similar on their own? It is not so much as not wanting/willing to give credit where its due but basically, I believe that each and every human being has the capacity to arrive at the same conclusion whenever they decide to use their brain.
Back to the quote, to be a voice, you have to have a thick skin to assert, to resolve to keep standing when you are shot down wrongfully, to keep your eyes on the prize and be willing to pay the price at all costs standing in confidence with that very message you know with full conviction has to be heard- this being the gospel, not the watered down version but all of its unadulterated and inconvenient truths.
To be an echo on the other hand is one who bounces the message without careful thought to it. While there is definitely a use for a resonating echo, it is not the origin of the message. It most often cannot explain the reason why the message came about. It only knows to pass it around and cannot defend it. The echo is nothing more but a faint distorted sound of what once was a clear message.
My thoughts may seem condescending to an echo personality. It’s ironic because I don’t have a strong personality in real life. I’m more reserved except when I am moved to speak about an injustice. My husband and I are one unit but two distinct and separate individuals having different thought processes. I would hate for him to think for me. I appreciate him thinking of me but definitely not thinking FOR me. While we come to an agreement on things, I appreciate the fact there are two brains working, giving two different viewpoints and yet both coming together. The time I become an echo would be the time I lose myself. Losing oneself is a recipe for discontent and misery, a road I refuse to tread having learned from being in a codependent relationship in the past.
Selflessness does not equate to losing yourself. Selflessness is a deliberate act that is attached with favorable results of harmony without the cost of compromising your own convictions and principles while losing yourself is an unfavorable consequence of fear, fear of losing someone, fear of being disliked etc.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”
2 Timothy 1:7
I enjoy the irony of sharing that particular quote, since the process of sharing it goes against the spirit of the quote itself. J.
Haha. If you pass something way too many times, sooner or later, it’s bound to cause a reaction.