Article January 1, 1966 Issue

Signs of the Times

Chaplain Frederick W. Brink

The Link

Chaplain Frederick W. Brink
U. S. Atlantic Fleet, Newport, R. I.
in The Link, a Protestant magazine for Armed Forces personnel Washington, District of Columbia

New Year's contribution is to encourage us to take inventory of ourselves—of the past year to see what we intended to do but didn't and of the new year to decide what we want to put within it.... We would look far to find a better statement of the resolve than that given by the great Apostle Paul. Writing to the Christians who were living in the pagan surroundings of... Rome, he urged: "Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect" [The New English Bible]. He said it in terms of himself when he wrote to the Christians in [Philippi], "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" [King James Bible].

Simply because this kind of living is not easy we have to make use of every resource available to us.... The Bible is a resource because... it is the experience of men who with God tried to find answers to just such questions as face us today. Prayer is a resource because... it is power. It is putting ourselves in intimate relationship with the source of life and wisdom. Service to others is a resource because... it opens windows and doors to larger patterns of living than just grabbing for one's self. Worship is a resource because worship puts us on the spot before God's desires. It is not saying, "Listen God, I'm speaking." Rather it is saying, "Speak, God, I am listening." The church is a resource because the church is not a place; it is an activity. It is the best, even though imperfect, agency we have for working together to accomplish the highest goals for the individual and for society.

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