Many people despise those who spend their health, strength and money for the salvation of others, and call them mad. And yet it is they who will save many and be saved themselves.
Sadhu Sundar SinghRead
The true Christian is like sandalwood, which imparts its fragrance to the axe which cuts it, without doing any harm in return.
Interpretation
The true Christian embodies selflessness by positively influencing others, even in the face of adversity.
In this quote by Sadhu Sundar Singh, the sandalwood symbolizes a true Christian's ability to emanate goodness and fragrance, even when faced with harm or negativity. Just as sandalwood gives off its pleasant scent to the axe that cuts it, individuals embodying true Christian values offer love and compassion to those who may not treat them kindly, demonstrating the essence of selfless love and resilience in the face of difficulties.
In practice
In a sermon about compassion and selflessness, this quote can illustrate how one should respond to negativity with kindness.
Many people despise those who spend their health, strength and money for the salvation of others, and call them mad. And yet it is they who will save many and be saved themselves.
During an earthquake it sometimes happens that fresh springs break out in dry places which water and quicken the land so that plants can grow. In the same way the shattering experiences of suffering can cause the living water to well up in a human heart.
Some people become tired at the end of ten minutes or half an hour of prayer. What will they do when they have to spend Eternity in the presence of God? We must begin the habit here and become used to being with God.
Perhaps the greatest barrier to revival on a large scale is the fact that we are to interested in a great display. We want an exhibition; God is looking for a man who will throw himself entirely on God. Whenever self-effort, self-glory, self-seeking or self-promotion enters into the work of revival, then God leaves us to ourselves.
Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist. We can be sure of its presence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen, will be made evident to others from the love which he imparts to us.
A newborn child has to cry, for only in this way will his lungs expand. A doctor once told me of a child who could not breathe when it was born. In order to make it breathe the doctor gave it a slight blow. The mother must have thought the doctor cruel. But he was really doing the kindest thing possible. As with newborn children the lungs are contracted, so are our spiritual lungs. But through suffering God strikes us in love. Then our lungs expand and we can breathe and pray.
In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.
No one who has come to true greatness has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to the people, and what God has given them he gives it for mankind.
Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.
Men from children nothing differ.
Everyone is an ocean inside. Every individual walking the street. Everyone is a universe of thoughts, and insights, and feelings. But every person is crippled in his or her own way by our inability to truly present ourselves to the world.
I believe human beings mark a threshold in the development of the planet, of course, but it is only part of the picture. What Big History can do is show us the nature of our complexity and fragility and the dangers that face us, but it can also show us our power, with collective learning.
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