If We Don't Change Direction

There is a simple axiom which says: “A straight line is the shortest distance between two points.” And to this we add another simple assertion: If we don’t change direction, we will arrive at where we are going. This applies to people personally, to companies, to communities, to countries. If we don’t change our direction, we will arrive at where we are going.

If we are running more deeply in debt, we shall continue to run deeper into debt—unless we change direction. If we are doing anything detrimental to health and happiness, if we don’t change direction we shall arrive at ill health and unhappiness.

If our relationships with our loved ones are deteriorating, if we are moving toward less happiness in marriage, less happiness at home, sincerely we should search ourselves, and see what part we are playing in the downhill process, before we bring heartbreak to ourselves and to the lives of our loved ones.

If we are falsifying, if we are engaging in small degrees of dishonesty, taking things that belong to others, breaking the law, not being quite truthful, not giving quite an honest day of effort—if persistently we are moving in such directions, we shall arrive at where they take us.

If we are not taking the trouble to learn, to study, to prepare ourselves, we shall arrive at wherever we’re going, knowing less than we ought to know.

Sometimes we live with the hope that something will happen to take us in a different direction. And sometimes something outside ourselves might do so. But even if someone else were to provide us with every opportunity, there would still have to be within us the will, the willingness to learn, to repent, to improve.

The way to change is to change. The way to repent is to depart from former practices—to turn to the right road. If we don’t change direction, we will arrive at where we are going.