| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 9 |
Page 4 |
But if in meeting wrong you have let yourself grow bitter, if you have become angry, if you have allowed vindictiveness to enter your heart, if you have refused to forgive, do you not see that you have hurt yourself, have done grievous and irreparable harm to your own life? A man told the story of a great wrong which had been done to him by another, a wrong involving base treachery. It had been years before, but it was known that his noble life had been nobler ever since the wrong had been done, that he had been sweeter in spirit, that he had been richer in helpfulness and service, and that he had been in every way a better man, a greater blessing to others. When asked how it came that that great tragedy had not hurt his life, had not made him bitter, he said that he had kept love in his heart through it all. That was the secret, and that is the only secret of coming through life’s wrongs, injustices, cruelties, and keeping one’s self unspotted from the world, unhurt by its want of love, by its cruelty.
One wrote to a friend, telling how hard she had found it not to grow bitter toward a person who for years had made life very hard for her father. There is much injustice in the world. It is easy to grow bitter; yes, but think of the hurt the bitterness would bring upon your own life. Yet if you patiently endure the wrong and keep yourself unspotted, your heart unhardened, the experience has not made your life less beautiful. Get the blessing that is promised in the Beatitude for those who are persecuted.
Another of these perils in life comes from care. Perhaps no other mood is more common than worrying. Nearly everybody worries. A score of reasons against anxiety could be given, but one of the most serious of all is the harm it does the life. It hurts it deeply and irreparably. It writes fear and fret on the face, and blots out the freshness and the beauty. Worry makes you old before your time. It takes the zest out of your life. It quenches your joy. It makes all the world less bright for you. It destroys faith in God, and robs you of the sweetness of your trust. It withers, wrinkles, and blotches your soul. You do not know how seriously and ruinously you are hurting your life, spoiling it, wasting its substance, destroying it, if you are letting care into your heart and allowing it to do its harmful work in your life.
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