All or Nothing...Or Something

I am an "all-or-nothing" type of person.  I remember in undergrad having to give speech before the student body (1,600 students) for a student government position I was running for.  I was going back-in-forth about whether or not I should open up with a corny joke.  I asked various students within the residence hall where I was living what there thoughts were.  It seemed to be split 50-50 on whether I should or shouldn't.   Later in the evening when had just about exhausted all my residential resources, a freshman said "Go big or go home".  Me, a junior, thought I cannot let this freshman give me that challenge and not tell the joke...I told it, and it worked, I had them laughing.  The strategy of "Go big or go home" or it could be said "all-or-nothing" was successful.    


This mentality of all-or-nothing is infused in my approach to how to bring about change in culture.  I recently I read two different articles in World magazine from two separate issues.  Each presenting the idea of taking little steps towards change, is better than nothing at all.  The first was an interview conducted with a Pro-Life attorney Clark Forsythe.  Clark Forsythe being interviewed draws a connection between Wilberforce's anti-slavery movement in England and the Pro-Life movement in America.  Wilberforce did not end slavery in one day, but years of taking something, little battles won in parliament which lead to the complete abolishment of slavery in England.   "Prudence says we should be accepting an all-or-something approach rather than an all-or-nothing approach. When you strike for the moral perfect, you often come up with nothing, because like it or not, we live in a democracy and public opinion matters."  


In the very next issue of World, I was reading their book reviews.  Marvin Olasky wrote a review on a biography of Booker T. Washington written by Robert J. Norell.  The book is titled Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington.  Olasky outlines the books purpose in explaining Washington's differences with W.E.B DeBois.  De Bois was in the North and wanted complete and total equality in a post Civil war era for African Americans.  Washington, living in Alabama saw this as near impossible at that time, but he could make little steps towards equality (Tuskegee Institute).   " In essence, they (De Bois and other prominent African Americans in the North) adopted an all-or-nothing stradegy that demanded political, economic, and cultural equality, and they called Washington a coward because he wanted all but would take something."


These are just two examples of I am sure many.  Though I am passionate and want to to see injustice righted, I need to show prudence (Prudence is the characteristic of exercising sound judgment in practical affairs).  The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint.  All-or-nothing would be great, but I need to realize rarely does it work like that.  Taking something however little it may appear to be at the time, is something!