From the archives - I originally published this post on my old blog site. To my surprise the post received high and sustained traffic. Who knew? I decided to republish the article here given its sustained popularity at my old site. Besides, I like Thoreau…
Resignation or Desperation
Do you ever feel like you are just going through the motions? Do you ever look around you and wonder what keeps people going? Most people I know operate out of something we often call resignation (and no, I don’t mean quitting your job resignation either).
What do I mean by all of this? What is my proof that something is seriously wrong? Consider the following thoughts:
- Most people don’t like their jobs or their work
- Most people don’t like much of their lifestyle
- Most people generally feel as though they are missing something
- Most people can’t wait for their two weeks of vacation or eventual retirement
What’s up with that? Why are we willing to resign ourselves to a life we hate? We are given 70 or 80 years (if we are fortunate) – why squander it on a resigned existence? Why squander life going through the motions?
Dunkin’ Donuts used a great marketing slogan in the 1990s:
“Life’s too short to drink lousy coffee!”
I agree. Life is too short to drink lousy coffee. Life is also too short to live in resignation.
Thoreau had an interesting perspective on this thing we call resignation:
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” (Thoreau, Economy)
I suspect Thoreau is probably right. Resignation is socially respectable, quiet desperation is less so. We deceive ourselves with our words. If we admitted that we were living lives of quiet desperation we would feel compelled to change our lives. We somehow make the situation more palatable when we falsely describe our quiet desperation as resignation. Resigning ourselves to a career or job we hate somehow seems respectable and mature. Following our heart, we are told, is immature and best left for children’s dreams.
One author offered this sage counsel:
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
People who have come alive. Now there is an interesting thought. God made each of us unique. God made me to be me; that is a role that no one else can play. I give glory to God when I live out who he made me to be.
Resigning myself to what the world thinks I should do and be gives no glory to God – rather it gives glory to the god of this world, the ancient serpent, the one who keeps the whole world in a darkened fog. The enemy of our souls delights to keep us in darkness, he delights to keep us from being who God made us to be. Our adversary is the father of lies and of all who tell them. Of course he lies to us about our identity!
A life of quiet desperation is a life wasted. A life lived from the heart is a life that gives glory to the God who made us.