The Pulpit Speaks: August 23, 1958

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

A few days ago, I heard one of the most heart-rending statements I have heard in some time. An old couple sat on a front porch at the mercy of the public for all things.

If they want to get off the porch, they have to wait until someone comes along and moves them back into the house. If they get hungry, they have to wait until someone comes along and goes across the street to buy something for them.

To them, life is just a matter of boring people to death at all times. The lady talked to me at length and reminded me of how they used to get around when their health was much better.

When she had finished reminiscing, she turned to me and said, “Reverend, we would be better off dead!” At once, I challenged her statement. I told her that God had a purpose for both of their lives by allowing them to remain here all these years. I reminded her that many times, a person’s greatest contributions were made in their waning years.

In baseball, the game is never won until the last man is out. In football, the game is not over until the last second has ticked away. The same holds true for a human life.

Some years ago, someone said, “If a man thinks he can, he can.” In the final analysis, a man is no older than his outlook in life. We are, in short, just as old as we think we are. The tragic aspect is that like this couple, many of us are too willing to resign ourselves to current conditions.

Nearly every day I hear someone say, “Oh, we can’t do anything about it, so why worry?” In short, these thinkers say, “Why concern yourself with this or that?” Resignation has never meant anything to anyone.

I like to think of that man who lay at the pool for 33 years and then, when questioned about lying there so long, answered in short, “Every time I get ready to go into the water, someone else beats me in!” If you want to find excuses for your failures in life, you always can.

A few years ago, I worked with a young man who happened to be a Negro. Hardly a day passed that he did not remind me what he could have done had he not been born a Negro. In some instances, the Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Baptists, Methodist, or what have you could say the same thing. Being any of these does not pose a barrier for the man or woman who wants to be something. But when we resign ourselves to certain superficial excuses, we set ourselves up for defeat. Activities throughout the world will prove to all of us that it has been discontent rather than resignation that has brought about the respect, love and appreciation people have for each other.

Whatever one’s station in life, he must always think in terms of bettering that position. The fact that some people have allowed themselves to be resigned to their existing conditions is basically responsible for world conditions.

Unrest is the one factor that has made for improved world conditions. Had Pasteur been satisfied with human suffering, had Ford been satisfied with the horse and buggy mode of travel, had Nightingale been satisfied with suffering on the various battlefields, many of the institutions now connected with them may have never been realized. But they were not satisfied, and not being resigned to the states in which they found themselves, we now benefit by their dedication and devotions.

We are fully aware that not being resigned to current conditions can be a costly undertaking. Men have paid with their energy, time, and, in some instances, their lives because they dared to move against the grain. So it is with all of us. We must move against the grain and do all that we can to better conditions for ourselves and all of those connected with us. No, we cannot cry out, “I’d be better off dead,” and give up the ghost, but rather, we must accept the challenges of our day and do all that we can to make our contribution.

To say that I would be better off dead is saying that I would rather be inactive and unconcerned about all of the things going on about me. As odd as it seems, the more concerned we are about the things about us in a positive way, they better we will make the world and the greater will be our contributions to the world about us. No, death is not the answer, but activity is!