Your greatest sin

Honor your Creator. Be great.

On the knotted plains of the Serengeti, a cheetah tears after a gazelle.

At first, the gazelle has a head start.

Hooves blast the ground. Dust erupts into the air. The gap closes.

Hearts pump. Eyes widen. Claws raise.

Before the wind can finish bending a tree branch, it’s over.

The gazelle is dead.

The cheetah is fed.

And now, the cheetah rests.

If you’ve ever watched a National Geographic documentary, you’ve heard the stats.

Cheetahs — at up to 61 miles per hour — are the fastest land animals in the world.

But that’s not the important part.

The important part is this:

When they can reach top speed, they do.

As humans, we often look at ourselves as the pinnacle of creation.

Yet, there’s something shameful about our existence.

It’s this:

Humans are the only part of creation that decides to not be all that we can be.

Think about our cheetah.

When it chases that gazelle, does it chase that gazelle with 60% effort?

Or does it chase that gazelle as fast as it can?

What about that tree blowing in the withering East African wind?

Does it only grow to 50% of its height?

Or does it grow as tall as it can?

And then, there’s man.

Too often, man is content with only giving a fraction of effort. Or only achieving a sliver of his potential.

It is, by definition, unnatural.

Nature dictates that we be all that we can be.

But with today’s comforts, we can ignore that pull.

• We can get away with eating an unhealthy diet — because there’s a medication for that.

• We can get away with being lazy at work — because we’re still better than our coworker.

• We can get away with binging 7 hours of Netflix — because we’re paying the bills, aren’t we?

The truth:

Most people are satisfied with going through the motions because their lives are comfortable enough to avoid exerting themselves in a meaningful way.

Again:

This is unnatural.

As part of nature, you’re created with an inherent, animalistic force that demands you be all that you can be.

For the world’s flora and fauna, this force is fixed. It doesn’t go anywhere, because it can’t.

Coast, and you die.

Ignore it, and you die.

Give 80% effort, and you die.

But for humans, that force disintegrates. Because life is good!

Or, it’s ok.

I guess.

So we don’t need it.

And we don’t use it.

And we lose it.

And man becomes the only one of God’s creatures that doesn’t do all he can.

The cheetah rests. But when it’s time to run, it runs.

The tree takes its time. But it never grows shorter than it can.

Man looks at his potential and makes a conscious decision to fall short of it.

Don’t let that be you.

Find your purpose.

Decide what matters most.

Set the biggest goals you can.

Tear after them. Sprint toward them. Be the absolute best you can be.

Anything else is unnatural.