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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 27. A Higher Aim.
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A Higher Aim.
Then there is a standard above these, much above; the standard of doing. There is a splendid company of those who believe that to do something is the highest ambition possible to man. These are eager to do the notable thing. They would be spoken of as having made a mark. Their names become known and are pronounced with a touch of awe sometimes. This is a distinct step up. It is good to know and to have; it is better to do. Achievement can transfigure both knowledge and gold with rare beauty. It can harness them for the world's good. When gold is at the command of hands outreaching in eager service it is fulfilling its highest mission.
The gray matter of the brain is greatest when it is tingling at the warm finger-tips of helpful service. The man who knows a great deal but does not make use of it is like one worth a million dollars—all in big copper cents; it is not available for use in that shape. The man who is busy getting money primarily for himself, not for use among others, is like the Dead Sea. It lies at the deepest depression of the earth's surface; he lies at the deepest depression below the surface of his fellows' needs. The man who is bent upon achievement, the doing of some notable, worthy thing, is aiming higher but not highest.
To do something notable is not the highest ambition of life. And yet more thoughtfully be it said that service is not the highest achievement. Wherever there is a God-touched life there will be service, warm, whole-hearted, untiring service; yet it will be the outflow of something deeper in and deeper down than itself. The man who aims at doing as the chief achievement of his life, without a deeper driving-power, will come to the end when things clear up, hungry and tired, and both dissatisfied and unsatisfied.
It is good to know, and to have. It is better to do; to do the thing best worth while, to do the most and the best; yet the highest ambition is not found here. It is but a roadway through to somewhere else, a high roadway and noble, yet only a roadway farther on and higher up.