What we are to be, we are becoming – Sunday, November 13, 1960
We would turn again to a sentence previously cited, which says: “What we are to be, we are becoming.”1 This seems somewhat to coincide with another quoted sentence which says: “I believe . . . we will be judged as we are, for what we are, and. maybe not for what we have been!”2 When we have done wrong things, when we have thought wrong thoughts, when we have made mistakes, we can well be exceedingly grateful for the great and blessed principle of repentance—because there isn’t very much that anyone can do about the past, except to learn from it. But there is much we can do about the present and the future.
John Locke said, “. . . men from their youth . . . let a good part of their lives run uselessly away……. One of the most useless kinds of wasting life away comes with supposing that because we have wasted it or have misused it, or have done something that was unworthy, it is useless to turn toward a right way. Sometimes we may suppose that the pattern is so set that it is useless to try to change. But who is qualified to say when it is useless to change, when it is useless to repent, when it is useless to improve, when it is useless to turn from a wrong way? No man is in assuming that there is no further point in repentance; no man is justified in assuming that there is no possibility of improving.
Any improvement in any degree, in any circumstance or situation, any turning to the better is all to the good, and there is no point in postponement. Indeed, there is great fallacy in those who suppose that because they have done some wrong, they must resign themselves to wrong. There is no justification ever at any time for anyone to resign himself to wrong. No matter how far a person has persisted on a contrary course, there is no reason why he should continue on such a course one step more or one moment more. The turning back is hard: the remorse that must be felt; the pride that must be set aside, the admitting of mistakes that must be made. But there is always good reason for turning from a wrong way.
While penalties are always paid for wrong, repentance is the only hope we have—and to cite again this quoted sentence: “I believe we will be as we are, for what we are, and maybe not for what we have been!”3 and the quicker we begin to be what we ought to be, the better off we are.
1Chinese- proverb
2Matthew Cowley, Matthew Cowley Speaks
3John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, November 13, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time, Copyright 1960
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November 13, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,630