I walked
with my friend, a Quaker, to the newsstand the other night, and he
bought a paper, thanking the newsie politely. The newsie didn't even
acknowledge it.
"A sullen
fellow, isn't he?" I commented.
"Oh, he's
that way every night," shrugged my friend.
"Then why
do you continue to be so polite to him?" I asked.
"Why not?"
inquired my friend. "Why should I let him decide how I'm going to act?"
As I
thought about this incident later, it occurred to me that the important
word was "act." My friend acts toward people; most of us react toward
them.
He has a
sense of inner balance which is lacking in most of us; he knows who he
is, what he stands for, how he should behave. He refuses to return
incivility for incivility, because then he would no longer be in command
of his own conduct. When we are enjoined in the Bible to return good for
evil, we look upon this as a moral injunction - which it is. But it is
also a psychological prescription for our emotional health.
Nobody is
unhappier than the perpetual reactor. His center of emotional gravity is
not rooted within himself, where it belongs, but in the world outside
him. His spiritual temperature is always being raised or lowered by the
social climate around him, and he is a mere creature at the mercy of
these elements.
Praise
gives him a feeling of euphoria, which is false, because it does not
last and it does not come from self-approval. Criticism depresses him
more than it should, because it confirms his own secret shaky opinion of
himself. Snubs hurt him, and the merest suspicion of unpopularity in any
quarter rouses him to bitterness.
A serenity
of spirit cannot be achieved until we become the masters of our own
actions and attitudes. To let another determine whether we shall be rude
or gracious, elated or depressed, is to relinquish control over our own
personalities, which is ultimately all we possess....The only true
possession is self-possession.
Other
Articles
The Consequences of Premillennialism
Psallo
Morality, the Government and Christians
Speech Made at the Funeral of Irven
Lee
Review of Radical Restoration Chapter
1
These Things Became Our Examples
The Fall and
the Rising
For Past Auburn Beacons go to:
www.aubeacon.com/Bulletins.htm
|
Anyone can join the mailing list for the Auburn Beacon! Send
your request to:
larryrouse@aubeacon.com |