Any computer programmer knows that the quality of one's code determines the quality of the output. "Garbage in, garbage out."
This dynamic applies to many areas of our lives.
When an interviewer asked him about the key to success, Warren Buffett pointed to a stack of books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
I would question whether all of us really can read 500 pages a day, but of course, Buffett is on to something.
The content we consume shapes who we are.
The Anglican priest William Ralph Inge said, “It is quite natural and inevitable that, if we spend sixteen hours daily of our waking lives in thinking about the affairs of the world and five minutes in thinking about God and our souls, this world will seem two hundred times more real to us than God.”
Of course, we can point to plenty of people who pray to God but who don't always act so godly (ourselves included). Like the growth in knowledge, the life of faith does not happen overnight. It builds up, like compound interest.
We may not be able to read 500 pages a day or forget about the affairs of the world, but we could at least try to take out the trash.
Thank you, Ross! These were sentiments I needed to inspire and inform the content of some conversations I need to have this week. Those pending conversations had been weighing on my heart until I came across your piece, and then a bunch of elements clicked into place. Beyond thanks, I also want to note that you have such a wonderful gift of being meaningful also being so extremely succinct. I know you’ve worked hard at this, put your heart into it, and have yearned to make sure that it is truly meaningful and accessible to people. You are succeeding!