| J.R. MIller | Page 7 |
We should forget our hurts. There are hurts in every life. Somebody did you harm last year. Somebody was unkind to you, and left a sting in your memory. Somebody said something untrue about you, talked malignly of you, misrepresented you. You say you cannot forget these hurts, these injuries, these wrongs. But you would better. Do not cherish them. Only worse harm to you will come from keeping them in your memory and thinking about them. Do not let them rankle in your heart. The Master forgot the wrongs and injuries done to him, and you have not suffered the one-thousandth part of the things he suffered in this way. He loved on as if no wrong had been done to him. A few moments after a boat has ploughed the water, the bosom of the lake is smooth again as ever. So it was in the heart of Jesus after the most grievous injuries had been inflicted upon him. Thus should we forget the hurts done to us. Only worse hurt will come to us through our continuing to brood over our injuries. Crimes have been inspired by remembering wrongs. But hurts forgotten in love become new adornments in the life. A tiny grain of sand in a pearl oyster makes a wound; but instead of running to a festering sore the wound becomes a pearl. So a wrong, patiently endured, mastered by love, adds new beauty to the life.
We should also forget our attainments, the things we have achieved, our successes. Nothing hampers and hinders a man more than thinking over the good or great things he has done in the past. There is many man who never achieved much worth while after doing one or two really worthy or beautiful things. The elation spoiled him, and that was the end of what might have been a fine career. There are men who once did a good thing, and have done little since but tell people about it. They have been compassing their Mount Seir many days. If you did anything good, worthy, or great in the past, forget it. It belongs to the last year and adorned it, but it will not be an honor for this year. Each year must have its own adornments. However fine any past achievements of ours may have been, they should be forgotten and left behind. We are to go on to perfection, making every year better than the one before. Dissatisfaction with what we have done spurs us ever to greater things in the future.
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