August 26, 2001

One of the popular songs from the Broadway show "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" was "Doing What Comes Naturally." That title became a mantra for many people who felt strongly that one should never resist the urges and impulses that lie within them. Although that might be fine when we are talking about the expression of talents and gifts, it is not so fine when it comes to some of the urges and impulses that can lead to harmful behavior. Disciplining those urges and impulses is often the mark of greatness.

When Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major league baseball, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers pressed this intensely competitive athlete to agree that for three years he would take whatever abuse was heaped upon him without a word. Robinson wasn't pleased with the request. "Mr. Rickey, are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" Rickey replied, "I am looking for a ballplayer with guts enough to fight back!"

The famous discoverer of radium, Marie Curie, was someone who once conducted 487 experiments. All of them ended in failure. When she was informed that it might take a hundred years before such an experiment would ever see success, she said, "If it takes a hundred years, that would be a pity, but I dare not do less than to work on it for as long as I am able."

It takes a tremendous amount of courage to resist the urge to return an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It also takes a tremendous amount of courage to resist the urge to quit. So those who do discipline those impulses, like Robinson and Curie, deserve the highest respect and admiration.

The author of today's letter to the Hebrews makes the astute observation that at the time it is administered, "all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it." And, if I might be so bold as to add a line, I would say that it brings forth greatness and respect and honor as well. Whether is be the urge or impulse to fight back or quit or to cut corners or whatever, it takes courage and a tremendous amount of discipline to resist that urge and that impulse. But it is in doing so that greatness is born.

SO THE QUESTION: "DO WHAT COMES NATURALLY!" WHAT WOULD YOU LIST AS THE "DOS AND DON'TS OF WHAT COMES NATURALLY?"

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