Recovering our Losses – Sunday, May 25, 1941
It is quite characteristic of humankind that whenever we pass up an opportunity or make a bad decision, there is always something of a secret hope and feeling in our hearts that our mistakes are not conclusive—that there will come again to us the possibility of making other choices to offset the ones on which we have defaulted. In a limited sense this is true. It is true that a man never ceases to live.
It is true that, inherently, he will always have the right of choice. It is true that he may always repent so long as he doesn’t let himself descend below the possibility of repentance. It is true that we shall always have the opportunity to better ourselves and just because we made a bad choice yesterday is no reason why we cannot make a better decision today. But it is also true that making bad choices has its permanent effect upon our lives, and no man who makes many bad choices is going to progress as far as the man who consistently makes good choices. We all do some wise things in life and we all do some foolish things.
We are constantly facing critical decisions, some of which we recognize as such, and some of which seem relatively of little importance, but which may have far-reaching effects. And even though we may recover somewhat from a bad choice, there are still fundamental reasons why we should guard ourselves against making them, because there is no other life in which the work of this life may be done—that life which is to come will have its own work to be accomplished, its own decisions to be made, its own achievements to be won, and time lost, and journeys traveled in the wrong direction, are all subtracted from the measure of our highest possibilities, even though eternity lies before us.
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May 25, 1941
Broadcast Number 0,614