n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 4
But all of that success, from the phonograph to the electric light, were built on
failed experiments, learning from them, and trying again.
When Edison’s New Jersey factory was destroyed by fire in 1914, his son
said: “My heart ached for him. He was 67 – no longer a young man – and
everything was going up in flames.” He expected his father to be devastated.
But he found him calmly watching the fire, and the next morning, surveying
the ruins, his father said: “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are
burned up. Now we can start anew.”
Seeing “value in disaster” is a great lesson in recognizing the good in
any situation. Edison wasn’t defeated. He could just start anew and embraced
the opportunity. We face similar challenges, generally on much lesser scales,
throughout our lives. The challenges relate especially to regeneration – a
lifetime process that knows plenty of failure. But, if we have faith, we – along
with this year’s Seniors – can live with the hope that “nothing will be impossible
for you.”
(BMH)
the eye of a boiled fish
“Natural charity, if it is spiritual within, appears to the angels transparent like
a diamond. But if it is not spiritual within, and consequently merely natural,
it appears to them like a pearl, resembling the eye of a boiled fish.” (True
Christian Religion 459.13)
(WEO)
“tolerance”
Tolerance, a relatively minor virtue, has been elevated to the status of supremacy
over all other virtues, to the point where it now seems to be the only virtue.
This is the definition of a heresy – a truth isolated from other truths and given
undue emphasis.
To “tolerate” something used to mean putting up with it even though you
disapprove of it. But the meaning of the word has been so twisted in recent
years that now disapproval itself is seen as intolerant. Those who hold tolerance
(the new version) to be the supreme or only good must therefore view as
intolerable anyone who disapproves of just about anything (in other words,
just about everyone, since everyone disapproves of something). “Tolerance”
has thus, ironically, become the excuse for extreme and sweeping intolerance.
“Tolerance,” as it is understood today, is a cruel and jealous god, demanding
that all other standards of right and wrong be sacrificed to it.
(WEO)
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