“Put your slippers way under your bed . . .
so when you get out of bed, you have to get on your knees to get them.”
Who should get “credit” for what you have, for who you are?
Watch our Truth in Two for Denzel Washington’s answer (full text below).
Take a moment. Thank God for all things.
Subscribe to “Truth in Two” videos from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaches at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, christianexaminer.com, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Who deserves credit for what we have done? Everyone enjoys getting credit. But is it ours to receive? Denzel Washington answers the question. In his 2017 Dillard University commencement address, viewed over 25 million times on YouTube, Denzel gives the answer to the question, “Who deserves the credit?” His answer? “Put God first.”
Denzel tells this story. He had a 1.7 grade point average. He was flunking out of college. He was sitting in his mom’s beauty parlor. A lady there looked at him and announced, “I have a prophecy.” She looked him in the eye and said, “Denzel, you will travel the world, you will speak to millions of people.” That pronouncement changed Denzel’s life. As he says about God, “I didn’t always stick with Him, but He always stuck with me.” And so, he tells the graduating class, “Stick with God in everything you do.”
“When you go to bed tonight,” Denzel concludes his speech, “I hope you put your slippers way underneath the bed, so that in the morning, you have to get on your knees to reach them. And while you’re down there, thank God for His grace.” If you want to watch Denzel’s 8-minute motivational talk, find it below in this truth in two.
Instead of seeking the credit, start giving the credit back, back to The One who has made this life and all things possible. As Denzel says in his address, “Everything I have is by the grace of God.” With Denzel, with us at the Comenius Institute, in anticipation of this Thanksgiving season, don’t seek the credit, give the credit, back to God.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.