Do you pay attention to detail – even detail that nobody but God can see?
Back when United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was a lawyer preparing for oral arguments, he would spend countless hours with a pen and legal pad. During that time he would speculate on the hundreds of possible questions he might be asked. As part of the exercise, he’d write down both questions and answers in long hand. He would eventually transfer those Q&A’s from the yellow legal pad to index cards and memorize them in random order.
That’s studious and detailed preparation, even though the vast majority of the questions were never asked.
Was it wasted time better spent on other endeavors?
After he became a federal judge, John Roberts was invited to speak to a group of up-and-coming lawyers. He took the assignment seriously and framed some of his advice with a wonderful story about medieval stonemasons:
“Those masons,” he said, “the ones who built the great cathedrals — would spend months meticulously carving the gargoyles high up in the cathedral, gargoyles that when the cathedral was completed could not even be seen from the ground below. The medieval stonemasons did what they did because, it was said, they were carving for the eye of God.”
I am neither a lawyer nor a stonemason. But as a husband, father and leader of an organization dedicated to helping families thrive, that story poses a great question/challenge for me – and for you:
What do I do in life that only the eyes of God can see?
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