very nice! that’s a great way of looking at things
i’d say there must be a balance though between always striving for improvement etc and at the same time enjoying what we have while we have it.

i love the quote though – if you ask me, complacency is one of the worst things that can happen to a person

I disagree strongly on two main counts .. one, it is good to go back to pick up friends that fall, or need support … so going forwards leaving them behind is unchristian.
Two: Is I have very little respect for a person who is never satisfied, or who always wants more. Actually, I have no respect at all for those, hence all the greed in the world. That sounds like a handy excuse to leave a wife, for one example. I think Augustine sounds like a loser. No offence to site owner or readers, but this quote offended me, & I seldom let that happen.
Unconditional love to all.

well i just researched augustine, & wow, i was right .. this quote seems to be from his pre-christian days, while he was still into all things not to be proud of .. before he found Christ was the Way, at about 30yrs of age. Wow, he tried everything, even drugs before 386AD.

while i can appreciate steve’s viewpoint, i’d have to say there are other aspects of the ‘constant striving’ concept… i can see how it could pertain to greed, but at the same time i don’t think there’s anything wrong with a desire to improve one’s situation, maybe to improve the contribution one is making to the world, or just improve one’s self and/or spiritual life. i think if we weren’t constantly striving for something more we would become stagnant, and then we would smell bad.
no really, i think the purpose of life is growth – spiritual, emotional, mental, etc… the Bible says that even Jesus grew (in wisdom and in stature and grew in favour with both God and men), and it’s a given that generally we do it without even realising it… even if nothing else i think spiritual growth is something to be constantly striving for, because isn’t getting closer to God the whole idea? maybe i’m speaking for myself, but there’s a whole lot more i want to learn and discover and see… and whilst i could accept my life just the way it is right now and never move forward from this place, i think that would be a waste, because i know that in time my life can and will be so much more than this. furthermore i think stopping where i am and never going forward would be very unhealthy (not to mention boring)!

sorry josh, maybe this should go in the forums…!

loves
ez

ah hah! clarification appreciated

Thanks for your thoughts guys. This quote is to do with spirital growth as opposed to positional advancement. It comes from one of Augustine’s sermons, number 169 in fact…..by which time he was a believer. Not that any of that really matters.

What does matter is that those on a spiritual journey are on the move, not just sitting around thinking they have it all figured out. As Augustine said “If you say, ‘It is enough’, you are lost”. You’ve stopped your journey.

I think there is something to be said for both Augustine’s (and Josh’s) point of view and Steve’s point of view.

The way I read it, the quote simply tells me that it’s a good idea to keep moving. Don’t let anything snag you and keep you from being all that you can be. I certainly don’t mean this in the sense of positional advancment, because I would be happy to alter our society so that such a ghastly thing did not, indeed, could not exist. On the spiritual, emotional, etc. levels though, I say touche. Why? Because we are always going through life being told, as kids, to grow up. We seek a level of maturity that seems to be a limit-point of sorts, in the wonderful calculus of being. We start on some path approaching this limit, going through school and gaining knowledge, learning how to love and be loved, and so on. In the end, the sum-total, the integral of our being, is the limit to infinity of our current selves. What do I mean? We have something to strive for, but which we will never reach. That doesn’t mean we should stop striving, but that we should, as St. Paul says, “run the race that is set before us”, on into the goal, the final prize. But to do it, the thing to notice is that we ust keep running, and not stop half-way around the track. If we stop, we’ll never get there.

On the other hand, we run these races personally and privately. Although others join us on certain legs, we are essentially alone in our strivings. This means that we can never really leave our friends behind, because our friends are running the same race, but on a different track. While our paths may diverge sometimes and then fall back into one, this is not leaving them behind, for they are running still, but it is moving away from them because that’s where your track leads. Sorry i this is a bit cryptic.

Hey there, definitely keep on moving – at your own pace! Don’t run faster that your legs will carry you.

My favorite quote:

“May all your dreams but one come true.”