Thought for today:
"Oh shadow of saving sunlight, window of my soul and instrument of my fate, fly me away from all earthly pain and distress and let me be enabled to look at life anew. Take me from the path of earthly danger and move me towards immortality in the heavens above. Let me settle on some distant moon and look down upon the earth below in all its radiant splendour as I gaze upon my past.
Were I to sit upon the moon and look down on all my earthy actions with total detachment, would the great, the good, the kind and the humane things I did for and towards others look as great, good, kind and humane from on high? Would I see that I did them for the benefit of myself as much as I did them to enhance the lives of others? Would I see that I liked being 'good' because it made me look 'good' in the eyes of others and thereby feel 'good' in myself? Was such a path I chose to walk in paved with intentions of humility or martyrdom?
And would those things I did, and which at the time of their enactment seemed so wrong to do, be now judged as harshly as I once judged them? Were those battles I fought through a sense of righteous anger and the wars I engaged in between adversaries and attackers of my beliefs, family and country really as wrong as I initially thought them to be?
Thank God it takes a God from on high to know the true difference between 'right' and 'wrong,' 'truth' and 'falseness' of purpose and intent. It was never meant for one man of this earth to stand in judgement over the deeds of another and to act as judge, jury and executioner. Neither was the earth designed to make half of the people on one side of its planet forever live in the shadow of the other half's brightness; placing some high and enabling them to look down on others, while moving in the opposite direction of the one place where all one day hope to be; the place whose space will first be occupied by those who today are looked down on most often from earthly thrones. " William Forde, March 10th, 2014.
"Oh shadow of saving sunlight, window of my soul and instrument of my fate, fly me away from all earthly pain and distress and let me be enabled to look at life anew. Take me from the path of earthly danger and move me towards immortality in the heavens above. Let me settle on some distant moon and look down upon the earth below in all its radiant splendour as I gaze upon my past.
Were I to sit upon the moon and look down on all my earthy actions with total detachment, would the great, the good, the kind and the humane things I did for and towards others look as great, good, kind and humane from on high? Would I see that I did them for the benefit of myself as much as I did them to enhance the lives of others? Would I see that I liked being 'good' because it made me look 'good' in the eyes of others and thereby feel 'good' in myself? Was such a path I chose to walk in paved with intentions of humility or martyrdom?
And would those things I did, and which at the time of their enactment seemed so wrong to do, be now judged as harshly as I once judged them? Were those battles I fought through a sense of righteous anger and the wars I engaged in between adversaries and attackers of my beliefs, family and country really as wrong as I initially thought them to be?
Thank God it takes a God from on high to know the true difference between 'right' and 'wrong,' 'truth' and 'falseness' of purpose and intent. It was never meant for one man of this earth to stand in judgement over the deeds of another and to act as judge, jury and executioner. Neither was the earth designed to make half of the people on one side of its planet forever live in the shadow of the other half's brightness; placing some high and enabling them to look down on others, while moving in the opposite direction of the one place where all one day hope to be; the place whose space will first be occupied by those who today are looked down on most often from earthly thrones. " William Forde, March 10th, 2014.