Life today is noisy and chaotic. Many of us navigate busy traffic, take phone calls, make appointments, run errands, and manage homes—all against the backdrop of a changing, rattling world. Sometimes it seems we are almost skidding down a hillside, grasping at twigs to slow us down.
Many of us look for a safe mooring in the wrong places. We invest our loyalty in material wealth, which can vanish overnight, or in the acclaim of the world, which is always fleeting. Some follow false leaders, whose charisma hides their empty promises. Others try to break free of pressure by pursuing luxury and leisure, but stress is always waiting for them when they get back.
Where can we turn to steady ourselves, to “stay our minds,”1 as the poet Robert Frost said? In his poem “Choose Something like a Star,” Frost writes of looking to the heavens to fix our gaze upon something immovable, something to help us align our compass and set our course. If we choose something like a star, like the God of heaven, we can feel constancy and peace. No matter the tumult around us, we can look up at the grandeur of the heavens, fix our gaze upon eternity, and let the uncertainty of life fall away. Quietly we can anchor our souls to everlasting things: truth, virtue, integrity, loyalty.
When life is darkest, when disasters mount, these are the times when God’s shining light gleams brightest. Just as the darkness brings out the light of the stars, so do troubled times reveal the strength and potential within the human soul. Only when we are tethered to eternal truth do we know that despite a swirling world around us, we are calm and safe, our compass is true, and our star is an unfailing guide.
Program #3924
1. “Choose Something like a Star,” in The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost’s Poems, comp. Louis Untermeyer (1971), 216.