| Dr. J.R. Miller | Page 10 |
But there are many things not just to our mind, which no thought or energy of ours can change. There are troubles or misfortunes which have already passed; why should we vex ourselves over these? We cannot, help sorrowing when a loved one has been taken from us; but why should we refuse to acquiesce in the will of God? When some misfortune has taken money from us, or when some turn in affairs has hurt our worldly interests, why should we sit down and grieve over the loss? Worry will not retrieve it, nor give us back the old favorable conditions. It is a great deal more sensible thing for us to face the fact of our diminished resources, or to accept the new and changed conditions, adjusting ourselves to them, and go right on with our life. He was a wise traveller who, when his horse died, said: “Well, I must walk now,” and trudged on with cheerful energy. Yet a great many people would have sat down beside the dead horse and spent days in bemoaning their loss. The mill cannot grind with the water that is past. We cannot have the thing we lost yesterday.
Wise are we if we learn this part of the lesson, and never waste a moment in worrying over what no human power can give to us again. This is true even in sorrow. Why should we weep inconsolably over the grave that holds our friend? We cannot, bring him back. We must live now without him. His work is done, but ours is not done. We must readjust our life so that we can live nobly alone. Sadness only unfits us for duty.
We need all our strength in order to be faithful in our lonelier condition. Regret never helps anything. It does not restore what has been taken away. It does not undo mistakes nor wipe out sins. We would better accept what is done and is beyond any power to recall, and take life just as it is now, working out our little duty bravely and with quiet faith. Says James Whitcomb Riley:
“O heart of mine, we shouldn’t
Worry so.
What we’ve missed of calm we couldn’t
Have, you know.
What we’ve met of stormy pain,
And of sorrow’s driving rain,
We can better meet again,
If it blow.
“We have erred in that dark hour,
We have known;
When our tears fell with the shower
All alone.
Were not shine and shadow blent
As the gracious Master meant?
Let us temper our content
With His own.”
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