Gumption
April 30

Gumption. It is a forgotten word in our modern day.

Too bad, since we need it more than ever in these “enlightened days.” I first heard it from my Papa when I was just a little boy. Some of you might remember gumption by another word, called "spizzerinktum.” Now don’t bother looking in the dictionary for “spizzerinktum,” you won't find it, or at least not in my dictionary. Some of you who ride motorcycles may be familiar with gumption because Robert Pirsig wrote a book entitled, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in which he wrote:

"I like the word gumption because it's so homely and so forlorn and so out of style it looks as if it needs a friend and isn’t likely to reject anyone who comes along. It’s an old Scottish word, once used by a lot of pioneers, but seems to have dropped out of use.

"A person who has gumption doesn’t sit around dissipating and stewing about things. He is at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes. Gumption is the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going. If you haven’t got it, there’s no way the motorcycle can possibly be fixed. But if you’ve got it and know how to keep it, there’s absolutely no way in the whole world that motorcycle can keep from getting fixed. Therefore the thing that must be monitored at all times and preserved before anything else is gumption.”

I sure wish we could recapture the use and practice of that old word, especially since quitting has become more popular than finishing well. Without exception it is a character trait that needs to be recaptured and woven into the fabric of our everyday work and relationships. What could gumption do for your relationship with your children, your mate or your walk with Jesus Christ? And wow, a practicing Gunptionologist (my word) at Heritage could spiritually energize the church. Now whether you know it or not we are all born with some gumption at both our physical birth and our spiritual birth. But all too soon it becomes rusty because we get lazy, and gumption, like a rusty tool, is not useable.

GUMPTION INSPIRIES US TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE. It inspires us to save money rather than spend every penny we make. It could keep us at a demanding task, such as losing weight, practicing a musical instrument and reading the Bible regularly.

GUMPTION STARTS WITH A STRONG COMMITMENT. Isaiah had it when “he set his face like a flint” (50:7). Daniel had it before he was dumped in the lions den, “Daniel made up his mind” (1:8).

GUMPTION can enable to not only start strong but to finish strong.

GUMPTION INCLUDES STAYING ALERT TO TEMPTIONS. Remember that Pirsig talked of being at the front of the train of our own awareness, always looking up the tracks and being ready to meet whatever comes down the tracts. Gumption plans ahead and watches for the adversary who is always trying to deceive us. Gumption enables us to stay awake and be ready in all seasons.

GUMPTION BRINGS WITH IT SPECIFIC REWARDS. Some of you know the rewards of finishing...done...completed...what a feeling! If you are always starting but not finishing why not get some gumption and experience the joy of Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (quit).”