Lord, it belongs not to my care whether I die
or live. To love and serve thee is my share,
and this thy grace must give. If life be long,
I will be glad that I may long obey. If short,
yet why should I be sad to sword you endless
day? Christ leads me through no darker rooms
than he went through before. And he that into
God's kingdom comes must enter, beloved, by his
door. Do you want to know something? The most
amazing thing is the fact that we are living
in a day when most folk know an awful lot about
life and few people know how to live. And it's
just like that. For a few minutes, I want to
talk to you about something that has meant an
awful lot to me. It was something that I... learned
quite early in life. And I want to pass it on
to you. It's something that I try to practice
every day, every week, every year of my life.
There's scarcely a day goes by but what someone
will say to me, my goodness, Miss Guman, every
time we see you, you're smiling. You seem so
happy. I'm going to tell you why I'm really happy.
I'm going to tell you what makes me happy. I'm
going to take the lid off of my heart for just
a few minutes. And I want you to see something
that's way down deep there. And I pray that you
will learn the secret of finding real happiness
in life. We're born with two instincts. Hunger
and the fear of falling. Any doctor will tell
you that. Any psychiatrist will tell you that.
All of us. I don't care how big, how strong you
are. I don't care what strength of character
you may have. We're all born with these two instincts.
Hunger. And the fear of folly. Even as tiny babes,
our first thoughts are concerned with satisfying
our hunger. And holding on to someone. Oh, you
see a little tiny baby. Invariably, the little
tiny fingers will hold on to something. Will
grasp. the finger of its mother, grasp the finger
of its dad, and hold on tightly while it's taking
its milk from the bottle. That's right. Those
are the first thoughts of many people all the
way through their lives. That's the reason so
very few people ever rise to greatness. They
never save. Anybody but themselves. Recently,
I flew down the Mississippi for about 100 miles.
It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the great
river below our plane looked like a flowing silver
ribbon as the soft beams of the moon played on
it. Oh, it was a beautiful sight. The beautiful
Mississippi River. it gave me a tremendous thrill
to watch the river the greatest in the whole
world and as i was looking down upon it i realized
that for centuries it has been giving all that
it has it freely pours out all of its waters
into the big Gulf of Mexico. Propose a minute.
Suppose the Mississippi River decided it could
not afford to give so freely, that instead it
began to hold back for fear that it would run
dry, that it would cease to be a great river.
Instead, it would become just a swamp. And as
a swamp, it would be an ugly thing and a breeder
of evil. But do you want to know why the Mississippi
is so great? It gives all that it has. all that
it has and continues to give, it has not run
dry. God takes care of the river. He causes the
sun to draw the water out of the gulf into clouds.
The winds come and carry the clouds back up the
river, and the clouds pours the water back again.
What the river gives It gets back. Now listen
very closely. One of the unexplainable but true
mysteries of life is the fact that you never
lose one single thing that you give. That's right.
No man can... Out give God. Try it. Just start
trying it. Somebody listen to me right now. You
try to out give God. You can't do it. The more
that you give to God, the more he gives back
to you. It's just like that. It's one of the
unexplainable. But one of the true mysteries
of life. You start giving to your fellow man.
You can't out -give humanity. You start giving.
Start giving to your neighbor. Start giving to
your fellow man. You can't out -give. It'll come
back. to you a hundredfold in one form or another.
You never in a thousand worlds lose what you
give. The wisest man who ever walked on this
earth, the very son of the living God said, he
that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
No person ever really begins to live until he
finds something big enough to give himself to.
If you want to know how to really live and be
happy in living, give yourself to something that's
bigger than yourself. Start giving. Giving. You
and I were created. We were made for outgoing
love. That's right. We must see the necessity
of a creative and an outgoing love. It's in the
words of Professor Hawking. This is what he said.
The most radically creative attitude yet known
to men is the determination to do what the everlasting
mercy does. The everlasting mercy is creative
and outgoing in love. And if you want to survive,
If you want to learn how to live and live happy,
get faith, get an overdose of outgoing love,
and make it contagious. Oh, to me, that's thrilling.
Try it. It works. Remember something. Every normal
man, every normal woman longs more... keenly
for love, for warm friendship, for admiration,
for human responsiveness from his fellows than
for anything else in the world. Then you start
passing out good cheer. Start passing out brotherly
love. Start passing out goodness. Start doing
for others. And I'll promise you, you'll receive
in turn a personal friendliness, a genuine happiness
that you never dreamed possible. And which will
absolutely, uh... change your entire life. That's
right. It will revolutionize your entire life.
It'll take you out of yourself. It'll take you
out of your smallness. It'll take you out of
bigotry. It's one of the greatest medicines that
I know. anything about don't wait for some miracle
to be performed on you from without don't wait
for something from without to change your mental
attitude to give you a physical uplift to do
something to you mentally no That miracle must
begin within you. It's got to be performed on
you. And you will find that that miracle of outgoing
love will lift you above your fears, above your
doubts, and above your self -centeredness. You
help God from within by turning in outgoing love
to others. And miraculously, your fears and doubts
and self -centeredness will all vanish. But the
miracle starts within, not from without. Throw
your will on the side of outgoing love, and all
the healing resources of the universe will be
within you. And you'll be amazed how quickly
you'll find happiness. But neither God nor man
can help you if you remain bottled up. in yourself.
Oh, that's glorious. No. Remember, if you haven't
heard a single thing that I have said in the
past several minutes, remember this one thing.
No person ever really begins to live until he
finds something big enough. to give himself to.