| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: than four glasses of beer a day or play higher than a twenty-five-cent
limit. At first I thought he was going to throw me out of the window,
but I kept on talking. Pretty soon I got a chance to tell him that
story about the Western Congressman who had lost his pocket-book and
the grass widow--you remember that story. Well, that got him to
laughing, and I'll bet that was the first laugh those ancestors and
horsehair sofas had heard in many a day.
"We talked two hours. I told him everything I knew; and then he began
to ask questions, and I told him the rest. All I asked of him was to
give me a chance. If I couldn't make a hit with the little lady, I'd
clear out, and not bother any more. At last he says:
Options |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: Reg. What need one?
Lear. O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady:
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need-
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both.
King Lear |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: Scripture, but in the Word of God and true faith.
XIII. How One is Justified before God, and of Good Works.
What I have hitherto and constantly taught concerning this I
know not how to change in the least, namely, that by faith, as
St. Peter says, we acquire a new and clean heart, and God will
and does account us entirely righteous and holy for the sake
of Christ, our Mediator. And although sin in the flesh has not
yet been altogether removed or become dead, yet He will not
punish or remember it.
And such faith, renewal, and forgiveness of sins is followed
by good works. And what there is still sinful or imperfect
|
