Our Pilgrim Planet – Sunday, January 17, 1982
Someone has said that the optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds.
The pessimist fears that this is true.
Well, what about this planet we share, is it the best or worst of worlds? True, many of the world’s windows are covered with rain. There is unhappiness, war, injustice and inhumanity. On the other hand, there is in this same world, much love, light and sunshine.
If we ask, “Is the world good or bad,” the answer is, “Yes.” Because it is populated with imperfect people, there is much yet to be done to make this world and its inhabitants all they might be. There is still too much darkness in the world and in us.
But the bright promise of the Lord to his children is that eventually each of us can be perfected, the dross can be driven out, the spiritual poisons purged from our systems and our personalities purified. This is the great hope of mankind.
A world populated with such people would, of course, be a heaven. And that is a pilgrimage worth pursuing.
Three centuries ago, John Bunyan wrote an allegorical novel titled, The Pilgrim’s Progress, the story of a man making his way through the trials and temptations of his life. Many of his settings and characters still have a familiar ring, places like Vanity Fair and the City of Destruction; villians such as Pride and Worldly Glory, and heroes named Hopeful and Faithful.1 The reason John Bunyan’s people and places seem so familiar, is because we are still struggling along the same path that his protagonist walked. Our trials and temptations have not changed. Rain, darkness, misery, bloodshed, yes, these are all presently part of our world, and unfortunately seem destined to continue for a time.
We are told we as individuals can do nothing to change this. But we can change ourselves, and in doing so we can change our own world. We can become personally strong through adversity, and humble through love. We can learn that every event in our lives has a purpose; and in finding our own purpose we can also find the purpose of this pilgrim planet on which we live.
1 John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, R S Peak and Company, Chicago, 1890
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January 17, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,735