Fretfulness… and thoughtfulness – Sunday, July 31, 1960
Some recent weeks ago the Choir recalled some meaningful music from Mendelssohn’s Elijah, from which today we would take a scriptural text, with words that run along these lines: “The harvest now is over, the summer days are gone.”1 There are times when all of us become acutely aware of the swift passing of the seasons, and of the days and hours as they seem exceedingly short. Being so absorbed in daily details, it is sometimes difficult to keep a sense of direction. “To know where you are is a good thing,” said a sentence recently read: But “It is as important and perhaps more so, to know where you are going.”2 But this also we would add: It is also a good thing to know why.
There has to be purpose to make things meaningful. The idle and aimless motions, time-passing without a sense of purpose, give a listlessness to life. And if we had a word to suggest today it would be “thoughtfulness”—thoughtfulness in pausing to consider the point and purpose of all we do. A sentence from Thomas Hood suggests an attitude at least occasionally becoming: “Stand shadow less,” he said, “like silence, listening.”3—listening, thinking, a little away from the rush and the routine—a little time taken for the quieting of the spirit, for the slowing of the pulse, for reflection, for some serenity; a little freedom from the fevered pace, a little time for appraising the purpose. We often wonder. We often worry. We sometimes spend some sleepless hours, we turn things over in our minds, with anxious anxiety. But fretfulness is no substitute for thoughtfulness—the thoughtfulness that quiets the spirit—that ponders, that prays, that thoughtfully appraises, and that doesn’t let itself get lost in routine, in the trivia of daily detail.
Life is a search, and the importance of the search should not be lost sight of in the swiftly passing seasons. And we would plead for the slowing of the pace that moves too fast to absorb the meaning of the passing scenes. We would plead for prayerful pausing, for thoughtfulness, for more awareness of the ultimate aim, before the harvest is over, before the summer days are gone.
1See Jeremiah, 8:20.
2Quarterly magazine, Rotary International in Great Britain, November 1959.
3Thomas Hood, Ode, Autumn.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 31, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12.00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960
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July 31, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,615