Page 3 - 1961 Part 2 VES Meteor

October, 1961
THE METEOR
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r children \Yho do not con- orm to the pattern; the boy ho is nut the athletic type, he person in college \\rho does t con furm to t he fraterni•ty t, or fit some other mould hat has been made the stand- rd of existence. This is one our childish thoughts; it is way of defending ourselves en we are young. People
o are different are peculiar.
Along with that goes the bought that my family is er than yours. I am sure of you probably escaped in your youth, but many 'ldren harbour it in their
inds longer than they should. ot only is my family better yours, but my town is he best in the wor'ld. My prep I is absolutely t ops, and y co11ege is the only college
orth going to. My country s so far ahead of all the other es in the world that are not worth mention- and, incidentally, in an rgument they are always ong. My church has some- . that no other church u'u even begin to have. Thi-s of thing is >the beginning
a person's loyalties, and is nothing wrong with it hen you find it in a child. It
where loyalrt:y begins, at . e. But when you find that 1nd of limited loyalty in a
who is no longer a child,
like t'his. A child's religion we seem to trust less in others Give youPself to -something
characteristically centers and ourselves, but lif.e its·elf really great. Let yourself go, more into the full sta·ture of
·
up in their
r eligion childish
and p~1t .away ·reII g1ous
We just couldn'·t
that time, is not adequate for us as adults. The cliffer·ence
have a tendency to get routine and dull. We fee'! that we'v·e
''You think goodness doe-sn't can •and will gro·w up, because
aTotmd himself. Do you re- seems •to lose its wonder. member studying the science.s
and you'll s·ee how lif.e holds manhood.
and discovering rthe differenc-e- between the Ptolemaic and Copernican pictures of life? I think the same is applicable here. The chilcJ'.s r·e'ligi·on is usually like the Ptolemaic pic- ture of life. He and his world are the center and God exists to make his world 'bright, to bless his father and mother, to make a good day fo.r the picnic, and to make his school team victorious. The revolu- tion that we all have to go through is ·the Copernican revo'iution ·in which we come to
see that God is the center. W·e exist to glorify Him, and to do His will, and to be used by Him. This is a very different religion, you see, from the re- ligion of our chi·ldhood when we think of God as someone who is wairting like Santa Claus to r·eceive our letters and an·swer our requests and do what we want. This is some- thing that I am afraid a great many people have never gll be the same trans- lated into terms of maturity. This is the way I have thought of it to myself. Imagine a sma·ll boy of five or six going to a boys' camp in the summer f·or the first time. He 'has not
been near the water before, but he takes to it, as the say- ing goes, like a duck. He has no fear of it whatsoever. He can't. swim but he goes right in spontaneously, acc-epting it and enjoying it. Then, in the course of the horseplay that often takes place, an older boy, not rea-lizing how small he is and tha:t he can't swim, pushes him under, and for a few ter- rible moments he is in panic. He is ·drowning. He is rescued, but what he says is "Never
again; I kno•w too much about the wat·er to risk t·hat again." He has lost something, you se·e. And t he summers go by, and his parents try to deal with the situation. They can- not find any way to overcome
thoughts.
LIVE without
The other clue to this whole problem of growing up comes
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Finals Sermon
(Continued from .page 2, col. 5)
career that has recentIy d up, because it is only in the last t'hir,ty-five or forty years that lighting.has become
important. She IS one of the ew people that can be ca11ed n expert in the art of lighting.
'C L. goes about each new play with the greatest care and the most supreme skill. This is the line that interested me
t in the story. "When ople notice Miss Rosenthal's o·hting, she is overcome by a
;eling of failure." She isn't to call a•ttention to her- . Her object in life is not
to show off her mechanica-l ,Ku·1. Her object in life is to off the stage and vvhat happening on it. Success to er is to create by means of ts the right atmosphere so at people will not be at all
rcw of the lighting.
You never see a mature uman being who doesn't have mething of that quality. It lw~ys impresses me when I th e Gospels to see that here was something of that uality about Jesus. Dominat- ng the whole scene as he did, nP1Jer for one minute belittling 'mself or his ministry to the 1 wo•rld, yet always pointing to- the Father who sent him. wanted no recognition. He not \\·ant to stand in the iddle of a circle and have >very eye on him saying,
k at what he did."
It is harder still for some of s to outgrow our childish oughts. \\'hat are some of em? I have put down one or o just as samples in order o stir up some others in your minds. One thought thart: think is characteristic of
'ldren is their belief that \V ho are different ar•e
•<'rn iar. Some of us would
1robably be appalled if we ever
topped to calculate the cruelty
hat children can show to. between the two is something seen it all before. Not only do don't know en•ougth about life.
FACULTY'S NEW ADD.ITIONS. LEFT TO RIGHT ARE MESSRS. DUNCAN, PARRISH, GRAMLEY, AND KIBLINGER
then you are up against some- thing that is not only unpleas- ant, bu-t dangerous.
Vve have to outgrow the lesser loya•lties of childhood and grow into the larger loyaLties of maturity. W e are in a world with two and a half biilion people besides our- selves, and they are all differ- ent. They speak 2,196 differ-
ent languages, and they a.r·e fol- lowe-rs of ten great religions. Certainly no man ha.s even be- gun to grow up unti'l he has put away th ose childish thoughts about his own little circle, his own family, h1s own town, his own church and country, and rea·lizes that loyalty, real as it is and kept as it must be kept, mus1t
ultimately be lost in the large.r loyalty to greater things.
The harde-st of all to out-
grow is our childish religion.
We begin in religion just as we
begin in all othe-r ways of our
lives as children ; we take what
we can take as children. Vve
pray to a God who is incredibly
near us. Somet•imes we wish
we could recover that Iater on.
But as we grow up we realize
from Jesus. \i\Then you first his fear. Finally, he goes again you up in its arms at the end."
And then he says, "You think with •the imagination that you have seen it all ; thart: there have already been saying. This sometimes older boys have, is nothing left in life that can is it: "Except you become like senses the situation, and he firll you with wonder and give little children you shall not takes ~he small boy off by him- you the ·excit·ement and thrill enter.the kingdom of•heaven." s·elf and says to him, "Let me that you had as a chi•ld. Look
We have been saying all along, show you. There is nothing to for me in ev·ery human face. under the guidance of Paul, fear about the water. You Every person thart you look at, that you have to outgrow your think you are afraid of the see if you can trace something childish ways. Now Jesus is water because you know too of my character and my spirit saying, "Unless you become much about it. The trouble is in his face, ·see if you can find like a little child, you will that you don't know enough under all the veils that some-
hear it, it seems to be the to a camp and an older boy, exact opposite of what we
never grow up." vVhat is at about it. Ther·e is something t•imes conceal it, the image of the bottom of this? What does you don't know abo.ut the his Father in heaven. Life will it mean "becoming as a little warter. Let me hold my arms nev·er be dtl'tl if you do that. child ?"
under you, and you relax your Look art ev·ery situation and body,andletmeshowyouhow seewherei·nthereistheoppor- the water will hold you up." tunity for you to manifest
It is very simple and very He does, and the boy r·eco.v·ers somet'hing of my spirit. No obvious, really. It rests upon his lost trust, only it is a situation will ever be dull
the fact that a.Jl of us in vary- ing degrees lose something in t1he process of growing up. As we grow up and take our cha nces in the world of com- petition and riva•lry, people let us clown. 'W·e are disappointed more than once, not on ly by
stronger thing, infinitely more again. The world will have
durable against the storms and again its i.nt·erest, and you wiU the tempest of the world than again be bathed in wonder."
it was befor·e.
W·e are like that, and of
Jusrt a word briefly at the
course people are different, end. No one can grow up for
and they have different experi- anyone else, and ce!itainly, no
people, but by .Jife. The things ences, but I would go so far as sermon can do this f.or you.
that life promi·sed us in the be- to say that Jesu•s is something About all a baccalau-reat·e ·ser-
ginning clon'•t seem to be forth-
like the older boy, and that he mon can do is to make you
coming. As a result of those has helped mor·e people re- thin•k aibout it, and perhaps in-
things we call the hard knocks cover their trust and wonder in crease your awar·ene'Ss of
of life, we begin to lose the life than any other single per- where you stand at the pres-
trust that we had so naturaJ.ly as a child when we would reach out to take anybo-dy's
son. He comes to us when we ent. The more we know abou't think that -life has treated us oursdves, the more we can Iiather badly, and we know so help ourselves grow. And t hen
that the religion of our child- hand who offered to guide us. much about it that we never
hood, adequate as it was at As we grow older, some things can f.eel the same. He says,
it can perhaps, J.ead you t.o
Him, to Christ, in whom you
pay? Let me show you. You as you move toward Him, He
clraws you out of your childish ways arnd lifts you more and
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