To Those Who Think They Were Born Too Late or Too Soon

Under the tension of these days, there are those who wonder why it fell to their lot to live in this particular time⎯those who feel perhaps that if they could have chosen their time of life they could have chosen better⎯back in some golden age, whenever that might have been, or in some golden age of the future, whenever that might be. But there are good reasons for saying that perhaps it doesn’t matter so much when people are born, so far as genuine happiness and usefulness are concerned. There are both happy and unhappy people in every generation; in every generation there are misfits and there are those who adapt themselves well to the circumstances of their own day. This has nothing to do with time or the material conveniences of life, and we wouldn’t eliminate the causes of unhappiness simply by changing our time of life. And if we really want to know why we were born now, the chances are we would have wanted to know why we were born at any time in which we might have been born. Way back before we knew anything about penicillin and plastics, there were still people who wanted to know why they were born then, and no doubt there always will be. But the foundations of happiness are quite apart from such things. There is no generation that has not had to face evil. There is no generation in which you might have lived in which you would not have found someone who would be ready to take away human liberties when the vigilance of the people is relaxed, or when their inward defenses become weakened. There have been great men and little men in all ages; tyrants and patriots in all ages; oppressors and oppressed. The important thing about life is that a man live according to the best knowledge of the generation in which he finds himself, and render the greatest service according to the needs and circumstances of his time. If he does this, he will be genuinely happy and successful no mater in what generation he lives⎯because the basic rules remain constant, and so do the ultimate purposes of life⎯in every generation. And so, accept the time in which the Lord God has made it possible for you to live, and get in and do the job that needs to be done. True, there are things about our time we don’t like. It’s up to us to see that they are eliminated. Righteousness will never cover the earth until men live righteously. Peace will never be assured until our lives conform to the pattern of peace. And the incident of time or place is not the vital issue. Such is our answer to those who think they were born too soon or too late.