Power Over Ourselves
There is a quote from Seneca which says, “Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.”1 Indeed, self-control is one of our greatest challenges and the gateway to our greatest opportunities.
“Man has two creators,” said William George Jordan, “his god and himself. His first creator furnishes him the raw material of his life … [but] it is what man makes of himself that counts.”2
Nearly everyone knows right from wren g, but not everyone does what is right. As a friend of mine recently said, “Wouldn’t it be easy if we could only do what we know we are supposed to do?” That is a product of self-discipline and self-control, and John Locke describes it as “The most precious of all [our] possessions … “3
Developing self-control is one of the severest tests we face. At each moment of our life, we are either king or slave to ourselves. As we surrender to a wrong appetite, or to any human weakness or failure, we are a slave; but as we master those wrongs or weak nesses, we create a new self and rule our lives with strength and wisdom. Self-mastery gives us the power to follow our convictions, and to better withstand the trials of life we are sure to face.
So often we are tempted to do things because they appear pleasurable, or because we find it difficult to say no, but Aristotle reminds us that “What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”4 False pleasure can quickly turn to pain, and we not only hurt ourselves but those around us as well. The secret to mental and spiritual health is self-mastery. It permits us to rule both our pleasure and our pain.
We can all gain self-control if we are willing to pay the price. The payments are small expenditures of mental, physical and moral energy; and the return is new inner strength and power in times of need. It has been said that self-control can be developed through small daily exercises in moral gymnastics: (1) Put down an interesting book at the most thrilling page. (2) Jump out of bed at the first moment’s waking. (3) Walk a short distance
when a ride is offered.5
Such simple exercises in self-discipline will have a wonderous effect on our whole moral nature and will help us develop “The most precious of all [our] possessions, … [the] power over ourselves. “3
1Seneca, E pistulae ad Lieilium
2William Geoge Jordan, The Kingship of Self-Control
3John Locke (1632-1704), Eng. philos.
4Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
5Paraphrased from The Kingship of Self-Control, by William George Jordan
October 22, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,248