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Heritage
by Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
According to a story I've read, a precious vase, made by a skilled artisan, was passed down generation after generation among a New England family. Each custodian charged with its care placed it in a prominent place in his or her home. The vase almost became an object of worship.
Mother came home one aftenroon to be met at the door by her daughter. "Momma," she said "Remember that vase passed down from generation to generation in our family?" "Yes," her mother replied. "Well," the daughter continued, "this generation just dropped it."
Heritage seems only slightly regarded today. But tradition and custom are what give life continuity. The wisdom of the ages means each generation need not repeat the mistakes of the past. Whenever we are tempted to despise the past and reject the insight of history, we doom ourselves to error and injury entirely avoidable. The calling of each generation is to perpetuate and transfer the best to those who come after.
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Awake, Sleepers
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
In an installment of The Family Circus, a child awakes from her sleep to declare to her mother, "Mom, I had the best dream last. I just hate that I slept through it."
It, of course, is natural to sleep through our nocturnal dreams; but, too often in our waking hours we do the same. Diurnal inspirations stir our spirits but we seldom act on them. We might as well be asleep.
Thoreau once pronounced, "I have never met a man who was awake." Too much of the time we sleep walk through life, failing to heed the higher callings of our draems. In many ways a dream deferred is a dream denied. Dreams beg active effort to be realized. Implicit in their presence is the command, "Awake, sleepers." Dreams really are meant to come true.
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"Good Company"
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
Apparently, when he lived in New York, Theodore Roosevelt was advised carefully to select those his boys played with. He told them:
Remember this always: there are only two classes of boys, Good boys and bad boys. If you choose your companions among the good boys, you need not worry whether they are rich or poor, or who their fathers and mothers are.
Here is sage advice for all who want to surround themselves with good company. Far more important than status or ancestry in choosing friends is character. It doesn't matter really what side of town someone comes from, but what side he or she takes on moral issues.
Choose friends with this criterion in mind and you will find yourself always in good company.
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In Memoriam
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
Memories are indeed precious, as an old spiritual claims. In part because we can remember our lives have continuity through time and we are not always obliged to learn life's lesson again and again.
Memories are also the means by which we keep what is important in our lives even after the important is gone. Someone has argued that often a friend or member of the family is really closer to us in memory than he or she was in life. In life we were apt to take that person's presence for granted, allowing many a day to go by without so much as a thought of the other.
But sometimes in death we think daily of a person we have loved. And as a result through memory that person is constantly with us, kept close by recollection.
That is the blessing of memory: in one sense as long as we remember someone gone is not really lost to us, but lives on.
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"What's Left Behind"
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
A well-known poet has these lines right for the start of a new year:
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind…
I really can think of no better motto for advancing into the future. The past is behind now. We can grieve over what has been lost. Or we can let our memories be a source of strength, inspiring us to better and brighter days ahead.
No doubt, the best way to honor the past is to work for tomorrow.
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How We Live
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
Samuel Johnson somewhere has the line:
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
We are eaisly struck these days by the pageantry of the funerals of the rich and famous. They lend an ambiance to the lives of those remembered that may or may not be deserved on the grounds of how they actually lived. Often we fail to understand that the only true eulogy is the life someone lives, and at death, nothing can be added to or taken from it. It is a testament written everyday.
And so, Johnson is right:
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
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"The Last Thing I Do"
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
"Die, my dear doctor, that's the last thing I will do." So wrote one British author. Clever and true. Death is the last act in every human drama.
The ancient Greeks held to the idea that the true nature of a thing is not known until the end. In dying we may reveal more about ourselves than we ever do in life.
But since none of us knows the day or the hour of this last act, the best stategy is to live each moment well, concentrating on important things. That may be the only guarantee that we will die well.
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"Task or Title"
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
Perhaps, it always has been, but prestige is an important value in modern culture. Renown based on achievement drives much of human striving today. Best schools, best jobs, best neighborhoods-all seem to be what people now want.
But tasks still remain more important than titles. Titles may enhance self-esteem, but tasks, especially when well done, are actually what make for a better world.
And in the end that's what is most important. Not our reputations, but our contributions.
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"No Crib for a Bed"
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
He was born in a cattle stall the ancient story tells. A rude beginning no doubt. Yet, a reminder to us all that infants always have come into the world in less than auspicious circumstances.
And a challenge to us to work to end those conditions that fate the young at the start. Infants, whatever their status, deserve warmth and care, and the best from the very beginning.
That holy child, whose birth we celebrate this season is not honored, until all children are. And that is the task to which we are still called-two thousand years later.
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Progress
Jacob L. Kincaid, Minister
The poet Browning maintains that what is unique about us is our ability to progress. He writes:
Progress, man's distinctive mark alone,
Not God's, and not the beasts':
God is, they are,
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
How true. Most of us would agree that we are only partly what we hope to be. We find ourselves somewhere in-between promise and reality.
But although Browning's diagnosis could lead to despair about ourselves, in the end, it is meant, I think, to give us hope. We are creatures who can change. That's why we must persist, if we want to make progress.
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