Manager’s Memo 01-19-2017

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I came across one of my favorite speeches recently getting ready to teach an Announcing class this spring. It’s part of “Citizenship in a Republic,” a speech given by former president Teddy Roosevelt in Paris, France, a few summers before the beginning of World War I.

It was a good reminder for me as I start a new year. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I’m called to spend myself in a worthy cause, a cause where the victory has already been won but the casualties of the conflict continue to fall all around me.

As we start a new year, let’s resist becoming cold and timid souls, afraid to spend ourselves on a worthy cause. We are children of the King, called and equipped to His service.

For 88.3 The Journey, I’m General Manager Mike Agee.