Signs of the Times

with contributions from Kermit R. Olsen

Rev. Kermit R. Olsen in the Beloit Daily News, Wisconsin

One of the great spiritual laws of life is found in the principle of selflessness. It is the path to real happiness. Selflessness does not imply, of course, that one should not have due regard for himself. One can respect himself in a selfness way. Jesus expressed it when he said, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." ...

As soon as we begin to center the universe around ourselves, life begins to shrink. "A person wrapped up in himself is a pretty small package," for as soon as self-centeredness takes place, life loses its splendor and majesty. ...

Getting outside of self is a requisite to real happiness; and as it is true that the greatest musicians lose themselves in music, so the greatest life is that which is lost in something greater than itself.

That is what the Master ... meant when he said that the men who save their lives, that is, who are thinking constantly of themselves, find life stale and miserable and tasteless, and thereby lose it. But those who lose their lives in self-forgetfulness in serving God and their fellow man shall find it, find it in all its beauty, majesty, and power! ... Selflessness is a law of life.

From an editorial in the Dayton Journal-Herald, Ohio

This great power which holds the galaxies in its hand and sweeps along the ages—what chance would any one of us have against this infinite being, were it evil? And it is not evil. The Scriptures tell us that it is good, and that its creations are good. ...

Is it not up to us as individuals to bring ourselves into the orbit of this power which is God? Too long have we been the prodigals told of in Jesus of Nazareth's story of the Prodigal Son. Too long many of us have kept ourselves away through our insufficiencies, pride of intellect, our small reasonings, our self-will.

But how may the prodigal ... find his way home? Here the Scriptures lend us aid. Mark the wise man of the Old Testament saying: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee," and the New Testament: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness"; "the kingdom of God is within you."

How often do we sit quietly in prayer to seek the knowledge that we are "stayed" on God, that the kingdom of God is within our consciousness? How often do we ponder on the inner glory, seek acquaintance with the infinite Lord of the universe?

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July 28, 1956

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