No Good Thing . . .

Last night I performed my programme to a medium sized audience in a hall that was smaller than I remembered. About a quarter of those in attendance were my friends, a fact which was not lost on me. Bless all of you that came; it made a difference. And I won. Yes, after all the okay I'll do it again because it's good for me but I really don't want to preparation I did come away with the prize. One thousand dollars and a beautiful cup. Honestly, I'm not sure which I was happier about. It would make a nice fable, with the moral: work hard and you'll recieve your reward. The only problem is that this is often not the case. A better saying would be "work hard and you'll have a better chance of reward". But this doesn't sound particularly inspiring or idealistic, so it'll never make it into Aesops canon. You can work your butt off and then fail miserably. Or (nearly as bad) you can perform spectacularly, and then get slighted or completely overlooked. That's life.

I still believe though that hard work does make a difference. At times it may not make the critical difference, but it does do something. And who are we to judge what difference it makes? We've got our noses smashed so close into the muck of life that we can't see the Mountain for the mud. There's not much we can do about that - we're small and that's that. However we can remember that though everything looks chaotic down at our relatively microscopic level, there is a bigger picture. When matter and time have passed away we may see it. And then we will know that no good thing has been in vain.

The twisted cords and knotty fibers that we contend with from day to day will be revealed as tiny parts of a lovely and poignant tapestry that stretches from pre-genesis to eternity. And when we see it, there will be only one response possible: My God, how great Thou art.