The Spirit of "Getting By"…

There is a spirit that blights and shrivels the human soul whenever it remains unchallenged and unchecked. For want of better words, perhaps it could be called “the spirit of getting by” ⎯of doing as little as possible, of giving as little as possible, of working as little as possible.

With young people in school it is sometimes manifest in an attitude of cutting corners and simply slipping through: in making a minimum effort to stay with the class; in studying as little as possible to acquire credit for the course; in being satisfied with a minimum passing mark without reaching out for further knowledge that could be had with a little extra effort. Young people often seem to suppose that there is ample time in the far future for all that ought to be done, and that it is smart for the present simply to get by. And sometimes very late they learn that the days of the life are limited⎯sometimes so late that they may not see it until they have passed the peak and are looking down the other side of life.

But it isn’t only among young people that this spirit has spread. Its infection is felt much farther and is manifest among men in many ways. While the spirit of getting by, of slipping through, the spirit of working little and giving less may sometimes seem smart and popular and approved, there is a law that says that benefits and blessings are predicated upon performance. We only grow by growing; we only do by doing⎯and he who shows a niggardly, unwilling nature, he who refuses to grow as much as he should grow, to learn as much as he should learn, to work as well as he could work⎯he who holds back his best efforts, whatever he may be doing to others, is cheating first himself, and dwarfing himself inside.

Quite safely it may be said: He who is afraid of doing too much, seldom does enough. “There is a law, irrevocably decreed… upon which all blessings [and benefits] are predicated,” and the spirit of slipping through, the spirit of simply getting by, will rob us of the richest rewards.