Running Commentary: July 2009

This post is long overdue.

Throughout the festivities associated with celebrating our nation's independence, we always hear and sing many of the same patriotic songs. Interestingly, both Lisa and I were unusually struck, on different occasions, by the same verse of a popular hymn. In the second verse of 'America the Beautiful', we sing:

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

I recently read the stories of Samson and Ruth (Judges 13-21, Ruth 1-4) in the Old Testament. The tales are striking.

Samson could, and should, have been one of the greatest leaders of Israel since Joshua. He had God-ordained power and gifts, and most importantly had the confidence in God to be able to use those gifts. Unfortunately, he could not master himself and became one of the greatest examples of failure through self-justification and uncontrolled passion.

Ruth, however, lived a quiet life of dedication and made decisions of highest morality when the stakes were the highest. Consequently, she was blessed to have both David and the Lord Jesus Christ in her lineage.

One can't help but ponder the wisdom of the words "confirm thy soul in self-control". It is my belief that we live in a day where the line between wants and needs is becoming increasingly blurred. Furthermore, and more troubling, is the erosion of the defining differences between inalienable rights, wants, needs, and unbridled passions. We are becoming a people who feel an entitlement to whatever it happens to be that we want at a particular time. Some people call this mindset progressive. I agree that we're progressing. To where we're progressing is up for debate.

Some quotes:

Plato: "The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile."

da Vinci: "You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others."

President Kimball: "Whoever said that sin was not fun? Whoever claimed that Lucifer was not handsome, persuasive, easy, friendly? Sin is attractive and desirable. Transgression wears elegant gowns and sparkling apparel. It is highly perfumed; it has attractive features, a soft voice. It is found in educated circles and sophisticated groups. It provides sweet and comfortable luxuries. Sin is easy and has a big company of pleasant companions. It promises immunity from restrictions, temporary freedoms. It can momentarily satisfy hunger, thirst, desire, urges, passions, wants without immediately paying the price. But, it begins tiny and grows to monumental proportions—drop by drop, inch by inch."