Words of Varying Degrees of Wisdom

I have been collecting and formulating words of varying degrees of wisdom over the years.  Some have been scattered over a number of my postings and one entry, my Maxims, has been presented to stand on its own.  Today I present a list of aphorisms (most of which have been gathered from others) of greater or lesser value that may bring a smile, a thought or a maybe even a resolution to you.

·        No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.

·        Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

·        Experience comes before understanding.

·        Don’t look for someone else to blame. 

·        The time to think of the end is at the beginning.

·        What you do speaks so loud that I can’t hear what you say.

·        You make your own sunshine.

·        Attitude is everything.

·        The music may change, but the beat goes on.

·        No pain, no gain.

·        I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.

·        By the time I finish whatever it is I’m trying to do, I finally know enough to start doing it.

·        Together is a beautiful word:

Coming together is the beginning.

Staying together is progress.

Thinking together is unity.

Working together is success.

·        You can eat an elephant if you do it one bite at a time.

·        Never say ‘can’t.’  Success comes in ‘cans.’

·        Education is cheap.  Ignorance is expensive.

·        Well done is better than well said.

·        You only have one chance at a first impression.

·        You are judged by the company you keep.

·        No job is too hard if you have the right tools.

·        A good preparation is 90% of the job.

·        Do what you have to do first, so that you can then do what you want to do.

·        Don’t put yourself down; there’s always someone else to do it for you.

·        When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

·        No man dies before his time.

·        When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. 

·        There is no such thing as a free lunch.

·        Little can happen today that wasn’t planned for by someone yesterday.

·        Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt. 

·        Only a fool argues with one. 

·        Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

·        Only in the dictionary does success come before work.

·        He who screams the loudest usually has the most to hide.

·        You never stop a war by taking part in one.

·        A goal is a dream with a date attached.

·        He who knows, and knows that he knows—

He is a wise man; follow him.

            He who knows, and knows not that he knows—

                        He is asleep; awaken him.

            He who knows not and knows he knows not—

                        He is a child; teach him

            He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not—

                        He is a fool; shun him.  

·        One problem with thinking you are self-made is that you can’t (won’t) go anywhere for help. 

·        If you only have one thing going for you, don’t worry.  One thing usually leads to another. 

·        If you use a pencil, you can be wrong and still write.

·        A song isn’t a song until you sing it.

      A bell isn’t a bell until you ring it.

      The love that is in you wasn’t put there to stay.

      Love isn’t love until you give it away.

·        The best mirror is often a good friend.

·        An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

·        Happiness is not having the things you want;  it’s wanting the things you have.

·        Inch by inch, life’s a cinch; yard by yard it’s really hard.

·        FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real

·        To shine is better than to reflect.

·        The will to win is worthless without the will to prepare.

·        A school is four walls with tomorrow inside.

·        If you’re not fired with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.

·        Competency is the concept, not the content.

·        Character is how you behave when nobody is looking.

·        Peace is not gained by talking in defense.

·        If you have tried to do something and failed, you are better off than if you tried to do nothing and succeeded.

·        If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, how will you find time to do it again?

·        A show-off is usually shown up in a show down.

·        If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

·        You’ll never be loved if you don’t risk be rejected.

·        When you’re good, no one seems to remember.  When you’re bad, no one seems to forget.

·        If the road you follow has no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

·        We are what we repeatedly do.  Striving for excellence should be a habit, not just an occasional act.

·        Plan ahead.  It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.

·        The time is always right to do what is right.

·        Love is a cure, both for the one who gives and the one who receives.

·        You can only go half way into your sadness before you start coming out.

·        Normally we do not so much look at things as overlook them.

·        He who is not busy being born is busy dying.

·        A child who cannot learn is like a person who, upon throwing a stone to the ground, misses.

·        Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

·        Words are the most potent drug that mankind uses.

·        The cigarette does the smoking and you’re the sucker.

     The fire’s at one end; the fool’s at the other.

·        The difference between a champ and a chump is ‘U.’

·        No one ever drowned in sweat.

·        Temperamental is 98% temper and 2 % mental.

·        When we feel without thinking, life is painful.

     When we act without thinking, life is chaos.

     When we think, but don’t act, life stands still.

·        If at first you don’t succeed, you’re doing about average.

Where the Mountain Joins the Sky (a poem)

   

There is a place where burdened hearts

            Take refuge from life’s care.

The simple things like flower and tree,

            A man and nature share.

‘Tis where the mountain joins the sky,

            Where earth and firmament meet

Man’s realm below and God’s on high

            Join there—the twain complete.

Standing high on wind-swept rock

            So very close to heaven

The heart of mine in solitude,

            Reflects on blessings given.

Peak beckons foothills to ascend

            It’s trails that lead so high

And everywhere there’s wondrous peace

            With a sense that God is nigh.

The sun by day, and moon by night,

            Reveals not works of man.

Where Heavenly Father and Nature meet

            High on this rugged span.

So you who rush around and fret,

            If quiet peace you seek,

Go climb the mountain of your choice

            And meet God at its peak.*

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*I do not believe that one will literally meet God the Father of us all at the mountain peak unless you, like Moses, are chosen to begin a new Gospel dispensation.  I have, though, felt God’s presence and the attendant peace through His Holy Spirit on such occasions while in deep and sincere prayer and hence the motivation to write this poem.  

The Trouble with Christians

Mahatma Gandhi (02 October 1869 - 30 January 1948) is reported to have said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

If many people feel that way, and it appears that it may be so, even among our own people, it is a terrible indictment of Christianity.  I believe there is both cause and non-cause (prejudice) for such an indictment. The accuracy of Gandhi’s judgment largely depends on which ‘Christians’ you look at.  One must take into account the degree of religiosity and integration of Christian principles and doctrines in the lives of members of the many sects of ‘Christianity’ and those who live in this and other traditionally Christian nations but in reality are not Christian at all. 

Gandhi’s problem was that in casting his net so broadly he generalized all ‘Christians’ as being the same.  They are not.  He should have known the apostle Paul’s delimitation: “There is one body (meaning church)…One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all….” (Ephesians 4:4-6) I agree with Paul; there is one true church.  As disagreeable as it is to state it, all others would have to be counterfeit, even though many of their communicants may be fine Christians.  It is those nominal Christians in any denomination whose behavior does not correspond with their professions that give all of Christianity a bad reputation.   

  

America is viewed as, and still is, a predominately Christian nation—again nominally—but the social landscape is rapidly changing with another wave of unanchored (and consequently disenchanted) cohort of young people.  Europe has virtually abandoned Christianity.  The under-age -thirty five generation in America and in continental Europe have increasingly bought into the secular humanistic (non-Christian) paradigm. There are other religious faiths among us: Jews have been among the earliest Americans; there is now a substantially larger Muslim population from the chronically unsettled mid-eastern countries that are a counterpoint to Christianity; and a lesser represented population of the Eastern religions. 

But the focus of criticism, in America, especially from the political ‘left’ is clearly aimed at what is perceived as the Christian ‘right.’  The focus of criticism from outside of America is against the moral standards of Western secular culture that is attributed to Christians but who really are not Christian at all. The ‘chaff’ is growing up with the ‘wheat.’

It is the religiously unrooted agnostic and increasingly atheistic younger generation that Gandhi, if he were alive, would now level his criticism. Moreover, it is precisely those ‘godless’ Westerners, and their moral depravity, that the mid-eastern Muslim Islamists and jihadists inveigh against.  And there is depravity in our society; but it is in no way countenanced by those who are true Christians. 

These realities come to focus in the 2010 book, American Grace, by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, scholars from Harvard and Notre Dame Universities respectively.  It is a landmark study of the subtitle to their book, ‘How Religion Divides and Unites Us.’ The demographics and analyses they cite in their 600 page plus book tells a fascinating and revealing story of who truly are the most religious people in America.  I will not attempt to even summarize their findings but will simply end this essay with a couple of observations I have personally witnessed and experienced in my own religious life as a Christian and that are substantiated by this research. 

People who more closely approach the Christ-like life (and who consequently would be less likely to have been judged negatively by Gandhi, or find they are being judged by other earthly critics and who will yet stand before a divine tribunal and are much more likely to be acquitted) are those who perform, without hypocrisy (play-acting) or guile at least the following: 

·        They will know, understand and integrate into their own lives the principles and doctrine as stated by Christ, His apostles, and the writings of the prophets that are found in the Holy Scriptures.  

·        They will have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, redeemer, and savior; repent fully of their sins; and participate worthily and regularly in the ordinances of the Gospel of Christ as administered by authorized agents of Christ. 

·        They will keep the commandments and strive to emulate the type of life Christ lived and taught (a life of kindness and charity and service to others, of daily prayer, of Sabbath observance, and of a willingness to sacrifice). Christ asked, “What manner of men ought ye to be?" He answered his own question:  "Even as I AM.”

Who are these people—these true Christians?  Look around… “by their fruits ye shall know them.”  They will not be found in bars or participating in pornographic activities or being entertained by R and X- rated movies or neglecting or abusing their families. They will be found doing good, in loving homes supporting their families and in their communities supporting righteous causes, and in their churches and temples supporting God’s work wherever it may call them. 

There is no trouble with Christians who “live by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God,” who do not defile their faith by cloak or club or hypocrisy. 

  

I am proud, in all humility, to call myself a Christian.  

And I personally like Gandhi; he could have been a good Christian because he was a good man.      

Unity (a poem)

I dreamed I stood in a studio

And watched two sculptors there.

The clay they used was a young child’s mind

And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher, the tools she used

Were books and music and field and art;

One was a parent with a guiding hand

And a gentle and listening and loving heart.

Day after day, the teacher toiled

With a touch that was deft and sure,

While the parent labored by her side

And polished and smoothed it o’er.

And when at last their task was done;

They were proud of what they had wrought;

For the things they had molded into the child

Could neither be sold nor bought.

And each agreed he would have failed

If he had worked alone.

For behind the parent stood the school

And behind the teacher, the home.