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bed408961b56d1c66d05841648126b27
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-780.mp3
This is tape number ET 26. From the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one, entitled Thanksgiving and the Nature of Life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Since next Thursday is Thanksgiving, I am reading my litany of Thanksgiving. And today, I
make my sacrament of Thanksgiving. I begin with the simple things of my days. Fresh air to
breathe, cool water to drink, the taste of food, the protection of houses and clothes, the comforts
of home. For these, I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that I have known. My mother's arms, the strength
of my father, the playmates of my childhood, the wonderful stories brought to me from the lives
of many who talked of days gone by when fairies, and giants, and all kinds of magic held sway.
The tears I have shed, the tears I have seen, the excitement of laughter, and the twinkle in the eye
with its reminder that life is good. For all these, I make an active Thanksgiving this day.
I finger, one by one, the messages of hope that awaited me at the crossroads. The smile of
approval from those who held in their hands the reins of my security. The tightening of the grip
in a single hand shake when I feared the step before me in the darkness. The whisper in my heart
when the temptation was fiercest and the claims of appetite were not to be denied.
The crucial word said, the simple sentence from an open page when my decision hung in the
balance. For all these, I make an act of Thanksgiving this day. I pass before me the main springs
of my heritage. The fruits of the labors of countless generations who lived before me, without
whom my own life would have no meaning. The seers who saw visions and dream dreams. The
prophets who sensed a truth greater than the mind could grasp, and whose words could only find
fulfillment in the years which they would never see.
The workers whose sweat has watered the trees, the leaves of which are for the healing of the
nations. The pilgrims who set their sails for lands beyond all horizons, whose courage made
paths into new worlds and far off places. The saviors whose blood was shed with a recklessness
that only a dream could inspire and a god could command. For all this, I make an act of
Thanksgiving this day.
I linger over the meaning of my own life and the commitment of which I give the loyalty of my
heart and mind. The little purposes in which I have shared with my loves and my desires, my
gifts. The restlessness which bottoms all I do with its stark insistence that I have never done my
best. I have never dared to reach for the highest. The big hope that never quite deserts me that I
1
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
and my kind will study war no more, that love and tenderness, and all the inner graces of
almighty affection will cover the life of the children of God as the waters cover the sea.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
All these, and more than mine can think and heart can feel, I make as my sacrament of
Thanksgiving to Thee, our father, in humbleness of mind and simplicity of heart. Ordinarily,
when we think of Thanksgiving, and particularly in times of historic perspective, we are
reminded of the time of the end gathering of the harvest, and the time when the forebearers of
ours gathered their fruit and their harvest and had a meal of Thanksgiving and celebration.
This is what we think of. But I'm thinking this morning, however, of a harvest of the heart. The
heart. What kind of harvest are you gathering in your own heart? And this is not merely an
academic question or a formal question. It is not a question that belongs to some particular
religious category or some religious insistence. But it's a question that belongs to the very heart
of all the meaning that your life is experiencing, and all the meaning that you are trying to
winnow out of the raw materials of your experiencing.
What is the cumulative encroachment that you have distilled out of the years of your living?
What is the harvest? It is not enough to say that you did not know what kind of seeds you were
planting. It is not enough to say that while you slept and were unmindful, some thief in the night
crawled over your fence and sewed your field, and now you must reap a harvest which you did
not sew.
This is not enough to say. The question cannot be downed. What is the harvest of your heart?
What is it that you yourself have grown, upon which you nourish your life? For as you have
planted, so will the harvest be. And during this period that we call Thanksgiving, it is altogether
fitting and proper that we should be mindful of this as the clue to what should be characteristic of
all of our days.
And this calls for one other consideration, and that has to do with what, in essence, is
Thanksgiving and the mood. It is not merely the utterance of words of gratitude. It isn't simply
saying a kind of salutation to life, that life has spared you or that you have been able to survive
or something of that sort.
But Thanksgiving is more than a mood of appreciation. It is more than a mood which comes
upon us periodically. It is a way of feeling about the nature of existence. It's a way of feeling
about the nature of life, that this feeling-- and I use the word feeling rather [? mirrored ?] than
using the word thinking. It is a feeling quality that life is something that I am sharing.
It is not something that I have created. It is something in which I am participating as a sharer,
and therefore, my mood towards it is one not merely of salutation, but one of deep, internal
humility that I have been graced by life in a manner that makes it possible for me to be where I
am in my place, carrying on in my way, reaping the harvest of my heart. And if I do not have this
attitude, then perhaps it were better that I had never been born.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
2
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord.
My rock and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This program was videotape recorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is tape number ET 26. From the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, this is
side two, entitled, Waiting Creatively.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy, sight, oh, Lord.
My strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
As preparation for our thought this morning, will you listen to these words? To him that waits,
all things reveal themselves, provided that he has the courage not to deny in the darkness what he
has seen in the light. This is a quotation. Waiting is a window opening on many landscapes. For
some, waiting means the cessation of all activity when energy is gone and exhaustion is all that
the heart can manage.
It is the long, slow panting of the spirit. There is no will to will. Spent, that is the word. There is
no hope, not hopelessness. There is no sense of anticipation, or even awareness of a loss of hope.
Perhaps even the memory of function itself has faded. There is now and before. There is no after.
For some, waiting is a time of intense preparation for the next leg of the journey. Here at last
comes a moment when forces can be realigned, and a new attack upon an old problem can be set
in order. Or it may be a time of reassessment of all plans, and of checking past failures against
present insight. Or it may be the moment of a long look ahead, when the landscape stretches far
in many directions and the chance to select one's way among many choices cannot be denied.
For some others, waiting is a sense of disaster of the soul. It is what Francis Thompson suggests
in the line, naked I wait, thy love's uplifted stroke. The last hiding place has been abandoned,
because even the idea of escape is without meaning. Here is no fear, no panic. Only the sheer
excruciation of utter disaster. It is the kind of emotional blackout in the final moment before the
crash. It is the passage through the zone of treacherous quiet.
For some, waiting is something more than all of this. It is the experience of recovering balance
when catapulted from one's place. It is the quiet forming of a pattern of recollection, in which
there is called into focus the fragmentary distillations of value from myriad encounters of many
kinds in a lifetime of living and journeying. It is to watch a gathering darkness until all light is
3
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
swallowed up completely without the power to interfere or bring a halt, then to continue one's
journey in the darkness, with one's footsteps guided by the illumination of remembered radiance.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is to know courage of a peculiar kind. The courage to demand that light continue to be light,
even in the surrounding darkness. To walk in the light while darkness invades, envelops, and
surrounds. This is to wait on the Lord. This is to know the renewal of strength. This is to walk,
and faint not.
For many people, even the word waiting is a negative word. It suggests giving up the struggle. It
suggests complete inactivity, a kind of acquiescence, a bowing before what may be regarded as
one's fate. But it seems to me that waiting need not be any of these things. Waiting has inherent
in it, what seems to be a very profoundly creative quality.
For waiting is, after all, an interval between moments, experiences, events, that are filled with
involvement and activity. Therefore, waiting carries with it [? said ?] very important
implications. It means that the individual must know something very specific, and definite, and
concrete about himself, so that during the interval, whether it be a limited interval or extensive
interval, during that interval, he can come into a closer understanding of who he is, what he is,
the kind of intrinsic equipment which is basically his, in honor that when the interval is over, he
may move into the next step in a full [? on ?] possession of his powers and himself.
Therefore, waiting means an understanding of one's self. Very often, there are things that we
discover about ourselves only because of the lull into which we move as a result of a series of
activities which have engaged us. For so often, life is so demanding. Life requires of us such an
absolute concentration, so often. Sometimes the scramble for survival is so momentous that there
is no margin of the self available for reflection, for interpretation of directions and goals.
Now, when the lull comes, it is then that one has a chance to take a look at one's self uninvolved.
One's self not under attack, but one's self as it were lying acquiescent and relaxed, without the
overarching, demanding pressure of activity. At such times, it becomes necessary for the
individual not only to understand oneself, but to accept one's self as one is.
Now, this does not mean to approve of one's self as one is. No, it may not mean that at all. But it
does mean the acceptance of one's self as one is. For better or for worse, you are you. I am I.
This is the basic core with which we have to work. This is the essential raw material which must
be fashioned into the kind of tool which we will place into life's hands on behalf of the dreams,
the desires, the hopes, to which we are dedicated.
Now, if I refuse to accept myself intrinsically, then this means that in the living of my life and in
the assessing of the meaning of my life, in this period of waiting, this lull, I am completely
bankrupt, because I cannot use as my own the raw materials which are you. I am stuck with
myself, and you are stuck with yourself. For better or for worse, this is what you have to deal
with.
Now, therefore, in waiting, in this lull, if I accept myself, then it means that precious energy will
not be wasted in trying to wish or in thinking, and hoping, and desiring, that I was someone else,
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
that I had certain qualities that I do not have. All of these things become a part of the blanket
term that is used over and over again, wishful thinking.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now, if I accept myself during this lull, then when I move in to the after waiting period, when
the new demands are upon me, when the new responsibilities are mine, or when the next stage in
my journey is being undertaken, then I move into it with a sense of power, a sense of vitality.
Because now, I have put at the disposal of the accepted self, whatever may be the gifts that are
mine. The talents of my mind and spirit, my personality, my resources, all of life now becomes
maneuverable.
Because at the core of my operation, there is a relaxed acceptance of myself. Now, once this is
done, then I can wait with wisdom. I can work while I wait. I can do all kinds of things that will
enable me to be in the darkness, if I may call waiting that. What I see myself as being in the
light. And this is, after all, what is meant by the line, I must walk in the darkness by the light
which I saw in the light.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord.
My rock and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-780.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edited - GL 7/26
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Thanksgiving and the Nature of Life; Waiting Creatively (ET-26; GC 11-23-71), 1971 Nov 23
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
1950s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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394-780
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Thanksgiving and the Nature of Life (1963-11-22); Waiting Creatively (1959-06-12)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1963-11-22
1959-06-12
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the Thanksgiving season. He lists a litany of feelings, emotions, materials, and states of being that he is thankful for: air to breath, food to eat, shelter, love, etc. He then discerns the way in which humanity may overlook many of the things that humanity should be grateful for, and suggests that Thanksgiving should be approached as a sacrament which points one towards humility and gratitude.
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the meaning of "waiting." He defines waiting as the "interval between moments, experience, events, that are filled with activity." Waiting is dynamic in nature, and requires a true decision from the one who is participating: creatively participating in one's own life as it is manifested today, or longing for the life they will never have.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
activity
ancestors
care
contentment
courage
creativity
crossroad
darkness
disaster
examine
Francis Thompson
gratitude
holidays
hope
humility
litany
love
magic
nostalgia
solitude
spirit
temptation
thanksgiving
unrest
waiting
will
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c7b31f56eaef923b43dd616591a58979
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-171_A.mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, lord,
my strength, and my redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Because this is the season of Thanksgiving, I want to stray from the theme on which we have
been working during these Friday mornings and read a litany of Thanksgiving and make a few
comments about the meaning of that kind of experience in human life. Today I make my
sacrament of Thanksgiving. I begin with the simple things of my days-- fresh air to breathe, cool
water to drink, the taste of food, the protection of houses and clothes, the comforts of home. For
all these, I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that I have known-- my mother's arms, the strength
of my father, the playmates of my childhood, the wonderful stories brought to me from the lives
of many who talked of days gone by when pharaohs and giants and all kinds of magic held sway,
the tears I have shed, the tears I have seen, the excitement of laughter and the twinkle in the eye
with its reminder that life is good. For all these, I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I finger one by one the messages of hope that awaited me at the crossroads-- the smile of
approval from those who held in their hands the reins of my security, the tightening of the grip in
a simple shake when I feared the step before me in the darkness, the whisper in my heart when
the temptation was fiercest and the claims of appetite were not to be denied, the crucial word
said, the simple sentence from an open page when my decision hung in the balance. For all these,
I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I passed before me the mainsprings of my heritage, the fruits of the labels of countless
generations who lived before me without whom my own life would have no meaning, the seers
who saw visions and dreamed dreams, the prophets who sensed truth greater than the mind could
grasp and whose words would only find fulfillment in the years which they would never see, the
workers whose sweat has watered the trees, the leaves of which I for the healing of the nations,
the pilgrims who set their sails for lands beyond all horizons, whose courage made powers into
new worlds and far off places, the saviors whose blood was shed with a recklessness that only a
dream could inspire and a god could command. For all this, I make an active Thanksgiving this
day.
I linger over the meaning of my own life and the commitment to which I give the loyalty of my
heart and mind-- the literal purposes in which I have shared with my loves and my desires and
my gifts, the restlessness which bottoms all I do with its stark insistence that I have never done
my best-- I have never dared to reach for the highest-- the big hope that never quite deserts me
that I and my kind will study war or more, that love and tenderness and all the inner graces of all
my affection will cover the light of the children of God as the waters cover of the sea. All these
and more than mind can think and the heart can feel, I make as my sacrament of Thanksgiving to
thee, our father in humbleness of mind and simplicity of heart.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Are you a grateful person? Think about it a little. There are so many things in your own life. As
hard as your life may seem to you to be, as rough as the going may be as the saying says,
nevertheless, if you examine your life very carefully, you will discover that there are many,
many things for which you should be grateful but things perhaps which you take for granted-- the
food that you eat.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
For instance, suppose you had a strip of bacon for breakfast this morning. Once upon a time, the
hog from which that bacon came was a living, breathing animal enjoying his life at the level of
his hogness, grunting his way into fulfillment in simple ways. And then without any
announcement from anyone, without any wish or will or desire on his part, assuming that he's
capable of having all of these things, he was summoned to a place at which he was slaughtered.
And because of his dying and his processing, you were able to have a slice of bacon this
morning.
Now this suggests something which may seem to you to be rather crude. But it is this, that all of
the life that has died in order that your life may be guaranteed places upon you a very searching
demand that suggests to me that your life or my life are not ours to do with as we please. Our life
in the first instance belongs to all the life that has been consumed by us through all the years of
our living.
So it is literally true that I do not have the right to do with my life as I please because there is a
very striking sense in which my life has to be an atonement for all the life that has been yielded
in order that my life might continue to be. So that if I am a courteous human being, if I am a
gentle human being, even though I may not regard myself as a religious human being, when I sit
to eat as an act of courtesy as an act of silent appreciation and gratitude to all the life that has
died that my dinner might be mine, I should bow my head in a silent if not spoken contribute of
gratitude for the life that is no longer itself because of me.
Now, of course, if I am a religious person, I will do more than this. I would express my gratitude
to God for all of the ways by which my life is sustained in the little and simple graces of life like
fresh air to breathe and cool water to drink and the miracle of my body. All of these things I
would express my-- through all of these things, I would express my gratitude to God. But be I
religious or irreligious, if I am a gentle human being, I will pause and give a quiet thank you to
life for sustaining me.
Now there's another level at which this works it seems to me. I was cared for as a baby. You will
care for a baby and as a child at a time when you were unable to care for yourself. This mean that
for a long period of your life, you were sustained and cradled, nourished, guarded, tutored all by
someone or some ones who had to do this by an act of will and desire on their part. This means
that deliberately other people's lives have entered into the sustaining and the tutoring and the
guaranteeing of your own life.
Now this means that for many of us, we were so protected that as children, we were not forced to
deal with our environment as if we were adults. This means that somebody built a wind break
between us and the adult pressures of life so that we were able behind that wind break to let our
little bodies grow, to let our nervous systems become centered and focused and tracked as it were
so that as we grew older it would be possible for us to deal with our environment as adults.
2
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now if we are-- were not protected in this way, if no one stood between us and the adult
pressures of life and we were forced to deal with our environment as if we were adults, it means
that our whole nervous system became enraged and angry, and this perhaps is one of the reasons
why we speak of delinquents in terms that we do when we refer to certain kinds of youth. To
know that your life is nurtured in God and to experience this every day and to acknowledge it,
this is the mood and the meaning and the substance of Thanksgiving.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh,
lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
3
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-171_A.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
A Thanksgiving Meditation, 1958 Nov 14
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1950s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
394-171_A
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
A Thanksgiving Meditation (1958-11-14)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1958-11-14
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019.
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the Thanksgiving season. He lists a litany of feelings, emotions, materials, and states of being that he is thankful for: air to breath, food to eat, shelter, love, etc. He then discerns the way in which humanity may overlook many of the things that humanity should be grateful for: the ability to have food, all that dies in order for us to live, etc. He then concludes this meditation by discerning the ways in which one could understand their own gratitude for God: God's care, God's protection, etc.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
ancestors
care
crossroad
darkness
examine
gratitude
holidays
litany
love
magic
nostalgia
temptation
thanksgiving
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/8d2f11215ce3c35f5c660d44861405d7.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711703400&Signature=39ghmncgG3Ebj3MIPZzPSr68Mlo%3D
665cca5cd178d96c180c8661d231c050
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-023_B.mp3
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The individual seems to himself ever to be working against himself. What he longs for is the
energy that comes from a concentration of his forces in a single direction to a single end. Often,
this is impossible of achievement because of many factors. It may be that a person has so many
gifts of such high order that the pull in many directions is authentic and convincing. It may be
that the goal that becomes is one requiring the kind of preparation that is impossible of
fulfillment because of circumstances that will not yield to the intent, however compelling the
intent may be.
Perhaps what the dream is set upon offers more precedent in his own story, thereby rendering
null and void the confidence, even the effort itself, or it may be that a man has turned his back
upon the vision that gripped him and accepted in its place something that fell within the easy
reach of untaxed powers. There's still another dimension in which a man may be a victim of
cross purposes. He may be set in his life's commitments with a personal equipment and
discipline equal to his choice.
But he feels under pressure to include in his activity additional. Duties that are compelling in
themselves but are a part from the meaning of his commitment. At such a time, a decision must
be reached that will enable him to say this one thing I do. This one way I take, this one
commitment I honor. To take mean such a stand may mean being bitterly judged and grossly
misinterpreted.
It may mean a loss of prestige, and a shattering of ties that bind into the lives of many others.
There is always the possibility that he may be mistaken, the victim of pride, of arrogance, of
conceit. Lurking ever in the background is the threat that one has taken the easier way out. One is
doing the convenient and less costly thing. At long last, the only redemption from the paralysis
of the cross purpose is to seek with all possible intent to link ones deepest desire with one's
choice of goal, and to make of one's life a dedication to such an end.
Ultimately, a man's responsibility is to God. The god a man worships is the god he must face.
The when he stands before him, What will he say? He comes to us as one unknown without a
name as he came to the man by the lakeside who knew him not. He speaks to us. He commands.
Follow me. And to those who obey him, he will reveal himself in the toils and the suffering and
the joy through which they shall pass in his fellowship. And as an [? affable ?] mystery, they
shall learn in their own experience who he is. And [? that ?] the words of my mouth, and the
meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. Amen.
As a background for our thought, [INAUDIBLE]. I am reading two paragraphs from the writing
of a South African novelist. I have sometimes thought it would be a terrible thing if when death
came to a man or a woman there stood about his bed reproaching him not for his sins, not for his
crimes of commission and omission toward his fellow men, but for the thoughts and the visions
that had come to him, and which he had thrust always into the background.
And then when he was dying, they gather around him the things he might have incarnated and
given life to and would not. All that might have lived and now must never live forever look at
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
him with the large, reproachful eyes, his own dead vision reproaching him, say we came to you.
You, only you could have given us life. Now we are dead forever. Was it worth it, or the sense of
duty you satisfied, the sense of necessity you labor under, should you not have violated at all and
given us [? birth? ?] It has come upon me so vividly sometimes that I've almost leaped out of bed
to gain air, that suffocating scent, that all his life long a man or a woman might live striving to do
his duty, and then at the end find it all wrong.
There are such absolutely conflicting ideals, the ideal of absolute submission and endurance of
[INAUDIBLE], the ideal of noble resistance to all injustice and wrong, even when done to
oneself. The ideal of the absolute devotion to the smaller always present call of life, and the ideal
of devotion to the larger aims sweeping all before it. The agony of life is not the choice between
good and evil. The agony of life is the choice between two evils or two goods.
We continue our journey, Jesus and the tempter. Sometimes it seems that the necessities of our
lives certainly with reference to time available for our own study, and meditation, and reflection,
particularly in the life of the master calls us to separate in [? disonated ?] units aspects of his life,
as if these aspects, or this aspect were the only and total story. I've often wondered why, and the
services on Good Friday, for instance, the first part of the service should not be concerned with
the birth of Jesus, the singing of Christmas carols, so that as one moves through all the unfolding
of the matches life, and one comes to the Hill outside the city. There is continuity and wholeness.
The tempter met him in our thought this morning at the crossroad, just outside the town of
Jericho. The master and his little knot of disciples were walking out of the city. And as they
came to a fork in the road, one going north towards Jerusalem, the other going south towards
Nazareth and Galilee, a strange thing happened. And it is the only place in all the records where
there is a statement concerning this strange thing. You remember?
As they approached the crossroads, Jesus apparently bolted ahead of the group. And it is
recorded that when the disciples look into his face, they were frightened. What did they see
there? What kind of inner-wrestling was so churning and tumultuous in its character and its
depth and intensity that it spilled over into his countenance with such dramatic import that when
those who had been with him all the time looked in his face, they were frightened, frightened at
what they saw.
Shall I go to Jerusalem, or shall I go back home? And the tempter talked with him, or to have
argued with him. It would be a wonderful thing to go back and to pick up the threads of the
dynamic ministry of healing and teaching. What a wonderful prospect. With all the cumulative
power of my experience of God as I sought to write laws in the context of they movements, the
meaning of His will and purpose in my life, and make of my life an utter contagion for the
transmission of His will and purposes in the lives of others, what a wonderful thing. Go back and
establish myself as the great, and good, and holy teacher, healing the sick.
I remember the time that I was walking along. And I heard before I saw him, the loud shrieks of
the maniac. And as I made the turn in the road, I saw him standing there disheveled, his eyes like
gutted candlelight, The [? bursted ?] chains dangling from his hands, and his arms, and his legs.
That day is terrible of the mind in a tilted place.
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
And something deep within me spoke to him. What is your name? And for a moment, as a
precursor of that which was taking place at some other region in this period, his mind balanced
just for a second. And he said, that is my trouble. I don't know who I am. There are so many of
me. And they riot in my streets.
Pitts Theology Library
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If I knew who I am, I would be whole again. I remember that. How wonderful if I could spend
all the years of my life, multiplying redemption, just multiplying it. And a lot of comfort I would
be to my mother. I would live, and teach, and heal, and die in my own bed.
But if I go to Jerusalem, where I would be on the receiving end of the cumulative rejection, and
emotional, and official insecurity of those whose foundations were disturbed by the revelation of
the god in me, who knows what they might do to me? It were me and my life, and not as some [?
mata-- ?] no-- but it remain my life because the only way they think by which they can protect
themselves from the [INAUDIBLE] of the judgment of God as articulate in me would be to kill
me, and not because they had something against me personally.
No, it is like the frog and the yeast cake seated on a park bench. And someone dropped water on
the yeast cake. And the yeast cake began expanding, and expanding, and expanding. And the
more it expanded, the more it crowded the frog. And finally, in desperation, the frog said, yeast
cake, why don't you stop pushing me off the bench? And the yeast cake said, I'm not pushing
you. I'm just growing.
This will to eliminate, which I will experience if I go to Jerusalem, will be the first line of
defense against the kind of disturbance and upheaval that the will of God makes manifest in me
who feels himself to be the living embodiment of the will of God. And I must be careful. I will
teach if I go there. But every night, my disciples and I will go out of the city in a quiet place and
hide. I don't want to be assassinated in some dark corner. I want the witness here. And this is a
[INAUDIBLE] of Judas, isn't it, one of the points.
Where is his hiding place? I will take you to it. How will we know him in the dark? I'll kiss him.
And so he went to Jerusalem. How I wish I had been on that road outside of Jericho, to feel his
presence how under the impact of what took place there, all the shattered [? mess, ?]
differentiated fragmentation of my own life and resolve would be galvanized into one whole
creative synthesis, so that even through my little sorry, inadequate impoverished life, the grave
gods might find a lung through which to breathe.
I wish I had been there. Shall I go home? Shall I go to Jerusalem? The Messiah. When you have
been at a crossroad of that quality, or that character, or that kind, or that [? intonation ?] however
you say it-- it doesn't matter-- but when you have stood at such a crossroad in your limited way
or my limited way, how did you vote? What did you do?
Thus thou tire, oh, Father, of hearing from our stumbling lips, the same monotonous cry of
inadequacy, of limitation, of sin? Oh, God, let us not weary Thee. But out of all the long journey
over which Thou has come with Thy children, speak to our condition.
Oh, Sabbath rest by Galilee, oh calm of hills above, where Jesus [INAUDIBLE] to share with
Thee the silence of eternity, interpreted by love. Let the words of my mouth. when the
meditation my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.
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Dublin Core
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Title
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The Temptations of Jesus (1962, United Church of Canada, London, ON, Canada)
Description
An account of the resource
Howard Thurman’s “The Temptations of Jesus” is a five-part sermon series concerned with how the spiritual attitude orients human encounters with dilemmas. In these presentations, Thurman reflects upon the biblical record of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness – bread, tempting God, and power – his decision to travel to Jerusalem, and his contemplation of death in the Garden of Gethsemane. This series shows that choosing divine purpose over egotism requires aligning with the will of God by getting one’s “self” out of the way of God.
Date
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1962
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Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard
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Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-023_B.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edits: ineffable; that (the words of my mouth); excuse me; birth?; bursted; martyr; intimation; inroads (of the judgment); the point, of course, (of Judas) - GL 5/15/19
Edited - GL 7/29
Edited "mess" to "bits". "turns one" south - GL 8/3
Location
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United Church of Canada, London, Ontario
Time Period
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1960s
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
At the Crossroad (Canada), 1962 Sep 15
Dublin Core
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Identifier
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394-023_B
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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At the Crossroad, 1962 September 15
Date
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1962-09-15
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019.
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GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-9044266.856827 5310050.4960179))
Description
An account of the resource
Thurman’s fourth sermon in this series expands the traditional frame of the wilderness temptations and portrays Jesus’ decision to go to Jerusalem for the last time as a crossroads dilemma. In this instance, Jesus must decide whether to go to Jerusalem, where he would be rejected and killed, or, to continue his ministry elsewhere and live. Thurman explains the crossroad faced by Jesus as a dilemma because this moment reflects the "agony" of any dilemma in that one must choose either between competing goods or competing evils. Jesus knew going to Jerusalem would mean meeting his fate. If he did not go, it would mean quieting the revelation of God within him. In the choice Jesus makes to go to Jerusalem, Thurman recognizes the crowning example of faith to trust God and follow divine will.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
agony
crossroad
dilemma
Jesus
Judas
temptation
tempter