Chalcedon Blog

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." ~ Thomas Edison, inventor

When man was placed in the Garden of Eden the world was full of possibilities. Hiding amongst the trees surrounding Adam and Eve were every kind of technology and innovation ever created or discovered. No, there were no cell phones hanging from tree limbs. There were no airplanes awaiting discovery in a cave. But, though unseen, the principles and knowledge potential were very much there.

In this sense, opportunity was in abundance, and it awaited only the rigor of man's diligence to uncover it. The prophet Isaiah declared that the wisdom of the farmer in knowing what to do with particular seeds "cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working" (Is. 28:29). Even though it is the farmer's long years of trial and error that God uses, "his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him" (v. 26).

Here we see the power of diligence and revelation. Adam needed only to work with world that was around him, and if he was diligent, he would start the long process towards compounding eras of great discovery. On the other side of Adam's first step was every technology yet to be revealed.

Revelation awaits the diligent soul. Discovery is reserved for those who seek wisdom "as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures" (Prov. 2:4). The harder you work to understand a given area, the more is revealed to you. The more you know, the more valuable you become. Education is simply equipping for greater problem solving.

The pay scale is often determined by the level of the problem solved. You certainly don't pay the kid who mows the grass the same as the doctor that treats your illness. Lawyers make more than waiters because lawyers solve bigger problems. You wanna make more money? Learn to solve bigger problems.

This requires education. It can be self-education or institutional education. Either way, increasing your knowledge and understanding equips you for more effective problem solving--and God has filled the world with problems waiting to be solved.

Even though we've had phones for a century, person to person communication is still a problem for man. More options and better technology make telecommunications the multi-billion dollar industry that it is. Even though the wire-based phones worked for decades, the cell phone was awaiting discovery for the diligent seeker.

Thomas Edison was one of the world's greatest inventors. He was known for saying that his discoveries were about 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration. That's because inspiration and discovery follow hard work, i.e. diligence in repeatedly going over the same problem again and again. C. S. Lewis stated the following from his own experience of study:

"For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand."

We have to work our way through to discovery. This is the calling of every man and woman. No matter what the field, we must be diligent in our plowing and thoughtful when things stall. We can reduce the complexity of any subject by simply increasing the amount of study we apply to it.

You don't have to stay where you are. A world of wisdom awaits the diligent seeker. As Edison noted, we miss opportunities because they come to us dressed as hard work.