ACADEMY SECONDARY SCHOOLS COMMENCEMENT
Feeling the Flow
of the Lord’s Love
The Rev. J. Clark Echols
I
want to suggest that you graduates consider how you will add joy to the
world. Now you have to begin in very simple ways. For instance, whenever
I walk into an elevator and there are already some people in the car, I remain
facing them, and as the doors close behind me I say, “You are probably
wondering why I called you all here.”
Why is that funny? Well, you thought: that makes no sense. You have
an emotional reaction, and your face
breaks into a smile, and suddenly,
without any effort, your breath is
expelled in a laugh. That is what humor
looks like. Some irrational thought
aroused an emotion, which became
a physical reaction. And this is the
case with all our emotions. They are
messengers that connect our inner,
spiritual life with our outer, physical
life. Our emotions serve an important
role in our bringing the Lord’s Divine
Love into the world.
For instance, remember a time
you were angry. Maybe once you had
a great idea, became excited about it
and began planning with others to pull
it off. And then something foiled your
plan. Do you remember getting angry?
You anticipate
something happening,
you have a thought
about it, and then an
emotion, and that
becomes a physical
feeling in your body.
This happens all the
time, to everyone.
It must be that the
Lord created it to
work this way.
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