Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.
Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase wisdom and create a living legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1130 of our trek, and it is time for our 3-minute mini trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little bit of additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.
Today’s quote is an old but still very timely for today one from Charles Francis Adams, and it is, “Failure seems to be regarded as the one unpardonable crime, success as the all-redeeming virtue, the acquisition of wealth as the single worthy aim of life. The hair-raising revelations of skulduggery and grand-scale thievery merely incite others to surpass by yet bolder outrages and more corrupt combinations.”
Although we might say otherwise, this quote is just as true today as it was in the mid-1800s when Charles Adams penned it. Charles is the grandson of President John Adams and son of President of John Quincy Adams. He had firsthand observation and knowledge of the hearts of men and women who were in the upper echelon of society. He could see firsthand how people truly viewed failure and success. We have to understand that culture’s and society’s views of failure and success do not line up at all with God’s perspective.
Should we strive to be successful in all things? Absolutely. When we fail, is it a crime? Absolutely not! God may permit failures and trials in our lives in order to refine and purify us. Success in and of itself is by no means an all redeeming value. The generation of wealth can be admirable if used to further God’s kingdom. The lack of wealth can also be used by God’s children to also further His kingdom. The generation of wealth should never be our single worthy aim in life. When it is, then it will drive us into all sorts of skulduggery, which means dishonesty, and we will then become thieves on a grand scale. When...
