It’s alright to “play it safe.” It’s better to keep what is old and bent and dented and tried, rather than go with the new that has not been tried. Just because something is new or attractive does not mean it is best. One must also have the perceptive acuity to recognize potential rather than just the actual.


Well, the offended one, too, often uses psychological defenses such as rationalization, self-justification, isolation, intellectualization, and others, to deal with his hurt.

I read this in a book the other day. The author was not given, but it represents everyman.
You have to help me? You have to help me by holding out your hand, even when that’s the last thing I seem to want or need. Each time you are kind and gentle and encouraging, each time you try to understand, because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings. Very small wings. Very feeble wings. But wings. With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding, I can make it. You can breathe life into me. It will not be easy for you. A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls. But love is stronger than strong walls, and therein lies my hope. Please try to break down those walls with firm hands but with gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive. And I am a child.
Now that you’ve read it and pondered it, answer the following question: Am I my brother’s keeper?


Few of us are wholly in the light. Some of us have moved to the edge of the darkness where the light begins to penetrate, but we still remain in the shadows. At least we are no longer wholly in the darkness. Nor do we hover around the edges. But if we continue our move toward the light some day we will emerge into it, and then merge with it. It is then we become a being of light.


Simply because you are in the world does not mean you should be of the world.


Our journey through life is not one of sequential transitions. Often we go up and down, backward and forward. It is therefore folly to judge ourselves when we are in a downward or backward stage. It is the trend of our pursuing that counts more than the direction we are flowing at the moment. Not who we are at present, but who we are becoming portends who we will be. Human beings are not therefore mere human beings, but human becomings.


Are you a victim of the pulling and repulsing forces of the opposing influences of our world, or do you DECIDE in what direction you will go? Do you allow yourself to merely be acted upon, or are you the actor?


The central concern of the Christian gospel is this: What kind of man ought you to become? If you know the answer to that vital question, then why procrastinate? Procrastination means not becoming!