Living a life is much like climbing mountains–the summits are always further off than you think, but when a man has a goal, he always feels he’s working toward something.”
–Louis L’Amour (The Lonely Men)
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”
–Colossians 1:1-3 (NLT)
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Many years ago, in fact I was in the seventh grade, Douglas MacArthur came out with his book in weekly format in “Life” magazine. I was enthralled with it and couldn’t wait until the next week to read the next installment. Since today is his birthday I thought I might throw in a couple of his quotations.
“Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old only by deserting their ideals.
Years wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair . . .
these are the quick equivalents of the
long years that bow the head and turn
the growing spirit back to dust.
Whatever your years, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder,
the undaunted challenge of events,
the unfailing childlike appetite for what next,
and the joy and game of life.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt,
as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear,
as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
So long as your heart receives messages of
beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur and power from
the earth, from man and from the Infinite, so long are you young.”
–Samuel Ullman (used by MacArthur often and became “MacArthur’s Credo”)
I used to send this to teachers on their birthdays. What is age after all? It is the envitable thing that happens to all if they don’t succumb to death by some other means earlier. Read through this and you might have some thoughts about how old you are in your thoughts.
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“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”
–General Douglas MacArthur
History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has either been a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”
–General Douglas MacArthur
In view of those two quotations we should definitely heed even the more the Scripture: “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34, NKJV)