Transcript

As one reads the New Testament, two facts stand out very clearly. One is the heroic, challenging, radiant figure of the Christ. The other is our failure to follow his example or to attain his serenity. We see the strength of the one amid all sorts of nagging circumstances, and the weakness of the other in the face of the bewildering confusions of our day. It goes without saying that we are burdened with many problems, and the problems have caused a panic. We talk about race relations, but we are beginning at the wrong end, trying to get people together, to think kindly of each other, to help one another, without any deep concern for the kind of people they are before or after. We speak about new economic relations, to get better wages, more leisure, honest work, without devoting any attention to the development of mind and spirit. We emphasize better understanding between countries, without trying to replace the greed and selfishness of nations with a keen awareness to sympathy and kindness. Or we argue about the liquor problem, thinking that if we can ban this or that, pass laws to restrict, get people to sign pledges, it will be solved. No, not without realizing that you have to get hold of the person and integrate his desires and appreciations. You see, this whole matter of living is much more than legislating or policing or social planning. It is to produce men and women, calm in spirit, keen in mind, alert in outlook, sympathetic in heart. A friend of mine once painted a picture, tall buildings, wide streets, a multitude of things, and looking down from them there in the street below, hardly discernible, was a man, a little speck, crushed by the very presence of massiveness. That is very often the picture of human life, a man, puny, insignificant, weak, compared with the environment or the heritage. But paint a picture of a man in the street looking up from the position of the man, and the whole perspective is changed. The man becomes the center, and the man must be the center of our concern. A man with mind, heart, soul, and strength dedicated to God, who can limit that? What can defeat that? Human life is considered cheap because man is a speck. We have automobile accidents because we argue that if people get in the way, they will be run down. We exploit people because we demand our rights. We have the popular custom of social drinking because we say, let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Why do we drink? Because we're jittery. We crave excitement. We like a feeling of security. We want to be in style. We are trying to hide something. We are afraid. We want to forget. We put the body and its appetites first. Our conduct all hinges on our conception of a man. Jesus of Nazareth comes along and says, a wise man which built his house upon a rock. There has to be a dependable foundation before we can have the possibility of dependable living. There is nothing wrong with the foundation of the universe. The fault is in us. We refuse to build there. There are wonders of electricity and electric power. What is the secret of that power? There has to be a current, and there has to be an instrument that can convey that current. Atomic energy is not just a hodgepodge. There is a formula that must be worked out and expressed. So in life, we must have persons who are channels for the power of God, and who will give that power a chance to work. Jesus shows us where the unshakable serenities are, building upon a rock, the rock of the presence of God, the rock of sympathetic understanding, the rock of spiritual resources. Consider, here is an unchangeable center for life. So much of life changes as the years go by. Our place in life shifts. Our environment is altered. Amid the moods, there has to be something that is permanent. We have to be able to start from a center that is abiding. Wealth is too uncertain. Applause is too fickle. Power is too limited. God alone is the one unchangeable center for life. God is going to have the last word in this matter of living. We have to come to grips with God sooner or later. We have to gear our life in with his will and his purpose. No man is the whole of himself. No man can reform himself or make himself. He is wrapped up with God and other people. The only freedom that matters is the freedom which comes to us when we belong to the highest, the noblest, and the kindest. Charles Morgan, in The Judge's Story, has one of his characters say, I believe that being civilized and free depends on having something inside of yourself to be true to and on knowing what that something is. God is my father. The answers of life may not always be known. The road of life will not always be smooth, but here is an awareness to the presence of God that makes me know that I am not alone in an empty universe. When I am used by God, I find strength and power for all the emergencies of life. I feel the thrill and zest in days of sunshine, and I get the lift and encouragement in days of cloud. Nothing can defeat a man who builds his life on God. This thought of God interprets life and directs life. There can be no solution to any problem in life without a vision of our relationship to God. To cooperate with the laws of God makes for an abundant life. To defy those laws and repudiate them makes for destruction. That is the teaching of history. An alertness to God provides the only satisfying stimulus for life. A sensitive appreciation for the true, the beautiful, and the good illumines the soul. Here is a rock on which to build. Consider again. Here is an immovable motive for life. There is a terrible attitude of mind abroad in this world, fear and hysteria. To get rid of that spirit, there must be the impact of a new spirit. Only ideas can get rid of ideas. Only truth can dispel ignorance. There has to be the power of understanding and sympathy. The value of any action is measured by its motive. There needs to be developed within us the spirit of reverence and regard for people, for all people. We cannot reverence other people until we reverence ourselves. We cannot share anything until we have something to share. What is the motive for life? In the memorial church at Stanford University, there is this inscription. Man, like every other individuality, has an object and a purpose to fulfill. And when he comprehends this, he will think too much of himself to stoop to any material action that shall bring him down from the highest position on the throne of his nature. We so often get hold of the wrong motive because we mistake the body for the soul. We interpret everything in terms of the material. We must have fine houses, large incomes, the latest gadgets, because these are the marks of success. We take care not to lose what we have, and we fret if they are taken from us. We often mistake man for God. We say that if the world is to be redeemed, we must direct our science and business and education and democracy to that end. We have been expecting salvation from men, but God alone can give us a clean heart. And it is only when we have the clean heart that we have a new outlook and live for the uplift of all people. The motive for life is the desire to cooperate with God for the building of his kingdom in the earth. It is the desire to become a partner with God, a witness for God, that everything we do will reveal our conviction that all people are the children of God. We will do nothing that will keep those children of God from growing up into the rich, mature experience in God. No man really lives until he has caught the spell of the creative helpfulness of Jesus. Here is a rock on which to build. Or consider further, here are unfailing resources for life. A man has to live on good terms with himself. That means there must be no hangover, no feeling of disgust, the ability to look himself in the face and not be ashamed. There have to be resources for living. What are those resources? Not merely advantages and opportunities, but also the compulsion, the guidance, the inspiration to use what we have in the best possible way. We live by our appreciations, hopes, fears, aspirations, loyalties, sympathies, affections. There must be order in this often discordant realm. We need to take hold of our emotions and adjust them to the appropriate and dependable object. Our difficulty is not that we have too much or too little emotion, but rather that the control of our emotions has not been developed. Far too often we have loved what is harmful, feared what is inspiring, enjoyed what is superficial, giving the emphasis of life to things that have no lasting joy or abiding value. We need to shift the emphasis. We need to cultivate the spiritual resources. In the realm of the spirit, we find deep satisfaction and genuine happiness for the whole of life. It has been shown that the more love we cultivate and spend, the greater love we have. The more kindness we show, the more effective kindness becomes. The more beauty we envision, the less room we have for the ugly. Here is the secret for wholesome and creative living, to have resources that will never give out, that will enable us to look life in the face and use an outlook on it that releases courage and victory. As we build on this rock, our problems become opportunities, privileges. We don't want a drink to stimulate us. We don't need an aspirin to quiet us. We don't demand a thrill to make us forget. These are unshakable serenities. Start here, build here, and find the power to overcome all evils, to enjoy a peace and attain a power, for we shall be like a wise man which built his house on a rock. And then the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.