The Right Answers

Not infrequently children ask questions, and then rebel against the answers—if the answers don’t happen to please them: “Why can’t I do it? Why is it so? Why does it have to be this way? To a detached observer we grown-ups must sometimes look very like children. The right answer is often not to our liking. Facts often get in out way. Principles are often looked upon as being inconvenient. Indeed, it would sometimes seem that we live in a world where too many are looking for the solution the problems which have already been solved—where too many are looking for the answers to questions that have already been answered—but some of us don’t like some of the answers. The plain truth is sometimes distasteful—especially if it interferes with our accustomed ways of living and thinking. No doubt, there were many in ancient Israel who didn’t like the Ten Commandments. There were many in the Master’s day who didn’t like the Sermon on the Mount. We recall the experience of Jesus the Christ, whom the multitude devotedly pursued when he fed them loaves and fishes, and whom they deserted when he stood trial for his life. And “Jesus answered them and said…Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” Both before and since this utterance, there has been much eager running after those who offered bread and much deserting of those who insisted on sound principles. It takes moral courage to stick to first principles, but there isn’t any other way to peace, to prosperity, to self-respect, or to anything that is worth while in life—and there are thousands of years of history to prove it, and a good many repetitions of old blunders in our own time to prove it further. And merely because we may not like the right answers is no excuse for resorting to the wrong ones. We can’t compromise principles and arrive at the right answers is no excuse for resorting to the wrong ones. We can’t compromise principles and arrive at the right answers. And those who spend their time seeking elaborate ways of by-passing the right answers will everlastingly find themselves on the same old detours, in company with all the wreckage of the past. When our children do it, we can see the utter foolishness of rebelling against the right answers. It is still utter foolishness when we ourselves do it.