Climbing the Ladder of Life to Greater Things

Listen to episode 601 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Climbing the Ladder of Life to Greater Things. Edited and adapted from As Natural as Life by Charles Gordon Ames. Visit our sponsor Green Chef to learn why they are the #1 meal kit for eating well. Go to GreenChef.com/inspirational100 and use the code INSPIRATIONAL100 to get $100 off, including free shipping. ----------- For today's podcast, I am including the entire transcript. If you would like to get full transcripts to all of our podcasts, you can do so by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month. Learn more at: https://livinghour.org/patron Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from As Natural as Life by Charles Gordon Ames, published in 1895. The years of a tree's life can be counted by the rings in its woody trunk. And, by looking at how these annual growths differ in thickness, we can tell or guess what years were friendly or backward, warm or cold, wet or dry. Thus the tree writes in itself the history of its life and the record of all passing seasons. To an eye that sees all things as they are, each person’s inner being must contain the stored-up results of all their choices and conduct, and all the forces and principles that have affected their mind and heart. We number our days as the tree its years. They make of us what we are and what we are to be. Indeed, what we call our character is simply the sum of inward effects produced by thought, feeling, and action. Worldly matters do not stand with any of us as they did a year ago. Our life has grown richer or poorer, deeper or shallower. We are better or worse (more under the rule of the truth and the right) or less so. The divine voice that calls us upward sounds nearer and clearer, or farther off and fainter, according to how we have heeded or neglected its invitations. This means that some days count for more than others, because we put more into them and get more out of them. No day is bright when the mind is dull. No day is dull when the mind is bright, and those are the great days which yield great events. But what we call an "event" is always an outcropping of what went before. There comes a day when the blossoms open, when the ripe fruit falls, when the ship enters port, and, after weary climbing, we reach a terrace or summit, draw a deeper breath, survey a wider prospect, and feel rewarded for our toil. The great days of life are not the days when something happens outside of us. They are the days when something happens inside — days of spiritual expansion; days of discovery or illumination when we gain a clearer perception of high realities, see deeper meanings in life; days of moral re-enforcement, when we make decisions and are prepared for worthier achievement. Our greater birthdays are the days when we enter into truer life and come into possession of a great character. In reflecting on what the days have done or may do for us, we naturally think about life and time. What is life? No definition seems to make it plain; but perhaps we have a right to say that life is our share of God. While we touch the transient and then leave it, we live in the Eternal and never leave it. Our lives are set fast in the larger life, like the limbs and leaves of a tree. In the very act of contemplating ourselves, we look into the infinite — just as in contemplating a star we look into the boundlessness of space. The more we ponder, the more we wonder. The mystery of our own existence forever connects itself with that larger Mystery which makes our existence possible — and we feel with wonder and awe, "How good it is to be alive!" What is time, but our present share in eternity. Duration, like space, is infinite. It has neither beginning nor end. But as the orbit of every star is a circle enclosing some tract of the immeasurable space, so our earthly life takes in some tract of the immeasurable duration. Our limited being can only take in a little. But these littles give us a hint of the large, as a drop is a hint of the ocean. To us mortals, life and time, within these limitations of sense, are conditions of everything else. Emerson exclaims: "Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous." What can we do with health and a day? We can live (consciously or unconsciously) in infinite space and infinite time. We can take in something of the universal life and the Godlike forces. We can come in touch with nature, humanity, and the Supreme Spirit. Between every rising and setting sun, we can gain visions of truth and beauty. We can put our powers of mind and body under the discipline of virtue and usefulness. We can live, learn, and love. We can do, enjoy, and grow. Thus, in the very act of finding the world around us, we find ourselves, and acquire the use of our faculties. We store up the results of observation and reflection. We become acquainted with reality. We keep step with the larger order. We can convert the days and years into building material for the temple of a noble personality. How precious, then, is time. How sacred, then, is life! At a funeral, I often find myself asking, "What did the person whose body lies here get out of their earthly years? They came into this world an infant, with empty hands. What did they carry with them when they left? They have moved about among their friends. They have looked on the earth and sky, and into human eyes. Thousands of days and nights have passed over their head. They have seen the flowers come and the leaves fall. They have felt the fever of desire and the chill of disappointment. They have heard words of truth, and soft inward calls of reason and conscience. God gave them time and opportunity. What did they do with their time? What use did they make of opportunity? What did they get out of life?" But, for the dead, I know not how to answer these questions. But I do know this: let us not shrink from self-questioning. As the years go by, let us ask ourselves, “Has life acquired a deeper meaning and higher value? Do we care more for good things, and care most for the best? Are we more ready to take a suggestion of self-improvement, more open to admit our mistakes, more sensitive to the distinctions of right and wrong? Have we been growing more reasonable, calm, and self-possessed; more amenable to discipline; and more skillful in the worthy use of our abilities? Has this human world in which we live schooled us to a better understanding of what it is to be just and kind, pure and true, helpful and glad? Have we grown stronger to resist bad examples, and yet more tender in our compassion toward human frailty and folly? Have we been drawing closer in fellowship to all good people, and more willing to do our part in all good work? If we can say yes to such questions, let us thank God, who has helped us to learn from our days the wisdom of the heavens. Every year is full of opportunities. Our pleasures and our pains; our victories and defeats; our gains and our losses; the flowers that have bloomed along our path, and the thorns that have torn our flesh — when we have left them all behind, can we not see in the review that they were part of our spiritual training? "We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. The one who lives most is the one who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." By the right use of things that are seen and temporal, we rise into communion with things unseen and eternal. "All common things, each day's events, That with the hours begin and end, Our pleasures and our discontents, Are rungs by which we may ascend." In climbing this ladder of life, we leave the rungs behind, and they are soon forgotten. So must it be with the days themselves, and with what they bring. One glance backward tells this story of merciful forgetfulness. How many things now look little which once looked large! Who cares to remember their toilsome days or their tossing nights, the pains that wrenched our nerves, or the pangs that smote our heart? It is much the same with the pleasures, achievements, and applauses that gratified us most. The events that began with the hours, ended with the hours; and our entire past is rapidly gliding away to mingle with the vague memories of childhood. Does the traveler remember their steps? Does the sailor remember the waves they crossed, or the winds that helped or hindered them? The steps must be taken, the voyage must be made; but the incidents by the way are forgotten at the destination. Let us welcome the experiences that conduct us to wisdom and goodness, to power and peace! Welcome all "the rungs by which we may ascend"! Welcome, too, the oblivion which gently closes the past behind us as a brighter future opens before us.

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