Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman

Author:Howard Thurman [Thurman, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8070-1083-9
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 1980-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

8. Thine is the Power!

HOW many years ago, we do not know. The setting may have been a simple cell in an ancient monastery. A monk laboriously copied the manuscript of the New Testament. Word by word he copied: “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Here the prayer ended. The mood of prayer captured the mind and heart of the devout copyist. At long last as if in a trance of exultation, over and over he said it: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory . . . forever! AMEN.” He may have written this on the margin of his copy. Later some other monk, seeing the words in the margin, incorporated them in the text of the manuscript. The story itself may be imaginary, but the need of exultation which the words depict is as old as the struggle of the human race for strength to fulfill the highest dreams and the most lofty longings.

The power—there are many secondary sources for the power which is of God. There is the power that comes from the challenge of a great need, deeply felt, in the life of others. There is a kind of tyranny that human need is capable of exercising upon us once we are brought into direct contact with it. In the presence of its imperious demand we are apt to forget our own limitations, our own inadequacies, even our own needs. This is one of the reasons why we tend to reduce our direct exposures to the needs of our fellows. We know that it will take us out of ourselves, out of our complacency and put our resources and ourselves completely at their disposal. “The note of service must be deepened and in our care for those who lie wounded or broken along the road, we shall forget our own wounds and our own wearinesses.” The need itself seems to create a vacuum pulling into it with utter ruthlessness that which is capable of ministering to it. After that kind of experiencing, we are willing to do in behalf of others what we were incapable of doing without such a challenge. Once the energy has been released, we become something more than we were before. A plus is added to ourselves. And into this added something, we ourselves have entered. We become, in deeds, the power.

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