Do you remember that Mariah Carey song, “Make it Happen”?
Now while there’s many diversions to using Mariah Carey as an example after she let her ball drop at the onset of this year… stick with me here. The song… this song spoke of praying to the “lord” and believing in oneself to see our way through difficult situations.
As inspiring as the song was, I think it may have led a lot of people (including me) slightly astray. And the ideology continues to do so. What do you think? Look at a sample of the lyrics… what do you make of them?
Pretty straightforward right? But there are two overarching things that stand out to me. The insight here does not apply to this song alone, but simply an ideology that has become a part of this culture and even become a sort of religion. The issue is one of effort. The question is one of grace.
It may help to view this on a scale. At what point does effort become a curse word? What this means is that at what point when we hear the word do we begin to cringe. On another side of it is, at what point when someone is exerting a lot of this so-called “effort” towards us, do we begin to cringe.
Is there a point where effort becomes something like an overindulgence and even glutenous activity? One where if we are the conduit of this effort, are we literally taking all the benefits that come with it, one both ends?
“Obvious effort is the antithesis of grace.” – Baldassare Castiglione
An example:
A teenager finds a group that he can enjoy is time with if he would put in a little effort. But the teenager does not solely find the effort of “being friendly” enough. Wanting to be even more accepted or rather adored, he finds himself adding to this effort by giving undue praise to his new peers, by buying things for them, doing things to look and sound more like them. At some point in the young man’s mind, it became about him, if it didn’t start off that way to begin with. Do they like me, how do the feel about me, how will they see me?
When effort has taken a turn to the place of “making it happen”, it becomes force or pressure to get to a desired outcome rather than keeping to one solid foundation, not two. When this happens it has taken a turn for the worse.
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