Facing Life on Our Feet

From all observable evidence, it would appear that man was made for movement—that he was made to face life on his feet, moving working, thinking, growing, solving his problems, and meeting his obligations with freedom and faith. Life itself means moving. Nothing stands still, and there is nothing in nature or in holy writ that does not suggest that man was made to face each day with work and faith. Indeed, in the account of the Creation, the Lord God said that man should have dominion over all the earth and told him to replenish and subdue it.

These are words of much meaning. They impose upon us all the obligation to act on our environment, and they give us little justification for succumbing easily to circumstances and situation. And we should also act upon ourselves, and not be content to be always as we are. Knowledge can be increased. Abilities can be improved upon. Appetites can be overcome. Desires can be subdued. Weaknesses can be conquered. Life is a process of eternal progression, and all of us are expected to play our part in the eternal performance.

Even the impaired are expected to perform what part they can perform. If we can’t move out on our feet, we can move to whatever degree we can move. And when we can’t move, we can think.

The promise of dominion that man was given over all the earth implies also control over ourselves. In the words of Leonardo da Vinci: “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.” Life was meant to be faced on our feet, with freedom and faith; and it was not meant that we should succumb to circumstances and situations—nor to ourselves—but that we should ever improve upon our own past, on the road to eternal progress. “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.”