When I was a boy, my parents bought an old upright piano and refinished it in the garage. I remember my father stripping the wood and my amazement at the fact that the raw wood was beautiful and alive, despite the fact that it was over a century old. Its color, luster, texture, grain, and …
Resisting evil is the most certain way to perpetuate it. “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is …
Man loves to grapple, to wrestle. He loves to struggle with ideas, contend with demons, fight his adversaries, and battle evil. He loves to fight the “good fight,” to rally against injustice, and to vanquish an oppressor. His history books are filled with tales of toil and resistance, the refusal to submit to forces greater …
Why is it that the notion of not resisting evil is so difficult to understand and put into action? It sounds so appealing when we feel its power in a church sermon, when we see the effects of those precious few leaders in history who have embraced it in their living, but when it comes …
“We all complain of the senseless order of life, which is at variance with our being, and yet we refuse to use the unique and powerful weapon within our hands — the consciousness of truth and its expression; but on the contrary, under the pretext of struggling with evil, we destroy the weapon, and sacrifice …
Roman philosopher Musonius Rufus made a number of astute observations on the condition of man some 2,000 years ago. One that strikes me as timely is this: To share the common notion that we shall be despised by others if in every way we do not strive to harm the first enemies we meet is …
"Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own good." - Pablo Casals …
Learning how to channel your energy into constructive purposes is one of the greatest skills you can master in life. As with so many valuable life lessons, we needn't look further than the common flea to recognize the potential inherent in storing and releasing energy in the right place at the right time. Fleas jump …
One of the most destructive forces on earth is self-righteousness. I daresay that self-righteousness has turned more people away from righteousness than any other vice. You've no doubt encountered it along the way: the holier-than-thou, hypocritically pious and smug expression of someone who feels that his beliefs, actions or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average …
Gregory Hake 