Our need of others—always – Sunday, July 26, 1959
Last week we cited a sentence from Sir Richard Livingstone that “the young, whether they know it or not, live on borrowed property,”1 and observed that all of us borrow much from many, from the present and the past, and that we are deeply indebted to too many to mention.
To follow this theme further, there are times in life when we may have feelings of self-sufficiency, times when things are well with us, when opportunities are open, and when we feel ourselves above the need we have of others.
We may go through periods of satisfied self-assurance and feel that it is not necessary either to consult or to consider others, and even to interpret the interest of others in us as interference. Children may sometimes feel this way as pertaining to parents, and as to others also, and be less gracious and feel less grateful, even to the point of supposing that they have outgrown others altogether and are quite competent “to go it alone in life.”
But there is no success that is permanently assured; there is no assurance against sorrow; there is no one who may not sometime know loss and loneliness: there is no one who may not sometime know real need. We all have great need of each other—or at least we cannot know that we shall not have need.
No man alone is ever altogether adequate, or altogether safe, or altogether assured that he may not have need of someone—soon. There is wisdom in counsel; there is safety in good company; there is something good about keeping close to family and good friends. And to young people particularly, and to all others also, we would plead always to keep the spirit of consideration, the spirit of respect, the spirit of gratitude, the spirit of humility, with all awareness that there is wisdom beyond our own small wisdom, and strength beyond our own small self-assurance.
There is wisdom in keeping close to loved ones, and to the Lord God, and the keeping of his commandments.
We all need others, always, whether we know it or not. And we may, none of us, every safely assume that we have surely arrived, that we have no need of’ others, or that we are quite prepared “to go it alone in life.”
1 Sir Richard Livingstone (quoted by Robert Redfield in Creation and Education).
July 26, 1959
Broadcast Number 1,562