I don’t know about you, but there are occasions when something written or spoken by someone else feels so kindred that it resonates in a deeply personal way.  So much of what Howard Thurman (1899-1981) wrote impacts me like this.  I don’t normally do this, but I’d like to share with you something he wrote.  I think he’s a gem largely unknown to western eyes.    

“Keep fresh before me,

The moments of my high resolve.”

“Despite the dullness and barrenness of the days that pass, if I search with due diligence, I can always find a deposit left by some former radiance.  But I had forgotten.  At the time it was full-orbed, glorious, and resplendent.  I was sure that I would never forget.  In the moment of its fullness, I was sure that it would illumine my path for all the rest of my journey.  I had forgotten how easy it is to forget.”

“There was no intent to betray what seemed so sure at the time.  My response was whole, clean, authentic.  But little by little, there crept into my life the dust and grit of the journey.  Details, lower-level demands, all kinds of crosscurrents—nothing momentous, nothing overwhelming, nothing flagrant—just wear and tear.  If there had been some direct challenge—a clear-cut issue—I would have fought it to the end, and beyond.

“In the quietness of this place, surrounded by the all-pervading presence of God, my heart whispers: Keep fresh before me the moments of my High Resolve, that in fair weather or in foul, in good times or in tempests, in the days when the darkness and the foe are nameless or familiar, I may not forget that to which my life is committed.”

“Keep fresh before me

The moments of my high resolve.”

• Taken from Meditations of the Heart (Howard Thurman), Beacon Press: Boston, © 1953, 1981, pp. 209-210.   

© Byron L. Hannon, 2022.  All rights reserved unless otherwise noted.