Do you play chess?
I have tried to learn to play a couple of times. I enjoy the game, but have not devoted the time to learn to play well.
I heard a chess playing buddy use a great term last week.
The threat is stronger than the execution.
Here is where the phrase come from:
“In relating the Nimzowitsch anti-smoking anecdote on pages 104–105 of their book Chess Panorama (Radnor, 1975), W. Lombardy and D. Daniels presented the punch-line as follows:
In this situation Nimzowitsch opponent took out a cigarette case and put on the chess table. Nimsowitsch hated cigarette smoke and called the director and filed a complaint.
The director said, “He has not lit a cigarette and there is no smoke. So your complaint is noted but it is not valid.”
“I know”, Nimzowitsch replied, “but he threatens to smoke, and you know as well as I that in chess the threat is often stronger than the execution”.
Most of the time in chess there are constant threats made that forces an opponent to defend each of the threats.
In short, you can spend much of your time worried about what your opponent might do, versus what they actually do.
How does this apply to spiritual growth?
You hesitate to pursue your own spiritual growth because of what you fear others might think.
Who do you think you are?
Why do you like that weird stuff?
I don’t have time for this.
Why are you stepping out of line?
That’s why I created the A.B.I.D.E. course. It’s a process to you to move out of your normal patterns, and focus on areas where you will be able to see more clearly what your heart needs to grow.
You can check out more on the A.B.I.D.E. course here.
You were created for this.
