"Happiness or Self Pity!" Kathryn Kuhlman

Well, the other day, I was looking through some of my poems that I've been saving and collecting through the years. And how long I've had this one, I do not know. But it's an old English prayer. And it goes like this. Give us, Lord, a bit of sun, a bit of work, and a bit of fun. Give us in all the struggle and the sputter. Our daily bread and a bit of butter. Give us health, our keep to make, and a bit to spare for others' sake. Give us, too, a bit of song and a tale and a book to help us along. Give us, Lord, a chance to be our goodly best, brave, wise, and free. Our goodly best for ourselves. And others. Till all men learn to live as brothers. Isn't that a good one? How long I've had it, I don't know. But there never was a day when we needed the truth of those words. You know, all self -centered persons, when self -frustration begins to set in, will... probably turn toward themselves in self -pity. Oh, I even hate to speak that word, self -pity. God, deliver me from self -pity, and please deliver me from having to be around people who pity themselves. They'll feel that life is hard on them. You mean you have somebody at home like that? You mean you have a wife like that? Oh, God help you. If you are married to a woman who is inflicted with the disease of self -pity and it's self -inflicted, all feasts know that. That's one disease that's self -inflicted. That's self -pity. They'll blame everything and everybody except themselves. Now, for instance, a case in point, a woman who had a nervous breakdown for no other reason than the fact that she lived in a state of constant self -reference, mulled over herself in self -pity. And those who tried to change her attitudes were always persecuting her. They loved her. They were trying to help her. They were just trying to do their best to help her. But if they said one word in trying to help her, she said they were persecuting her. Her life was all jammed up. Just jammed up and she brought it all on herself. That... awful self -centeredness. Had she pulled that log out, that key log that was jamming her whole life, that key log of self -centeredness and self -pity, had she changed her center from herself to God, the whole thing would have been cleansed, released. That was one woman that no one ever heard her say, I am sorry. Be careful of the person. Whether they're a member of your family, whether you work with them, whether they are an employee, be careful of a person who cannot say, I am sorry. You'll find that person very self -centered. That's right. She could not say, I am sorry. As near as she came to it, one day she said, yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I did not take better care of my health. I'm sorry I didn't take better care of myself, you know. The repentance still had a self -reference to it. She's clogged up, and she'll continue. She has tied the hands of both God and man. They're both powerless to help her. God can't help her. Her husband can't help her. Those who want to help her, no doctor can help her. I cannot help her. Be... Because she is so self -centered and that key log is self -pity and self -centeredness. That's the reason you've heard me say 10 ,000 times that the only person that Jesus cannot help, the only person for whom there's no forgiveness when it comes to their sins, person who will not say to Jesus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for my sins. As long as a person can say, I'm sorry for my sins, there's hope. As long as a person can say, I am sorry. As long as they can say, I am wrong, there's help. But when you find a person who will not say, I am sorry, there's just no hope for them. Such a self -centered person usually draws disease to himself, almost like a magnet. The underprivileged person has my sympathy. He will always have my sympathy. But just because you are underprivileged, do not allow the disease of self -pity to come upon you. Whatever you do, I beg of you. I plead with you. I would get down on my hands and knees this very moment and beg of every underprivileged person. Do not allow the dreadful disease of self -pity to overtake them. Do not permit yourself to accept pity, either from yourself or from any other man. Pity is the most dangerous form of emotional charity. It can play havoc with your life. It can destroy you, literally. pity can destroy you. It'll make a weakling out of you. It may seem to comfort you at first, but beware of such comfort, for it'll turn you into a spiritual bum. You'll soon find yourself a whining weakling. Ever on the watch for handouts. I'm saying something. It does not matter what fate has done to you. It does not matter what life has done to you. It does not matter under what circumstances you are living. You may be crippled in body. You may be broken financially. Heated. Despoiled by life. Robbed by death of the thing that was dearest to you. Still within you there will be something. There will remain something that is unbeatable. Something that may inspire respect and command service. Still you may come back if you don't accept pity. There will be victory. There will be a way. God will make a way. Things will be different tomorrow. The sun will shine as long as you refuse self -pity. But the very second that you accept self -pity, you've taken into your mind and into your heart and into your body a disease that will destroy you. That's right. Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade, and yet... The menace of the years finds and shall find me always unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. Those are noble words. Make them your words. Stand up straight. Even if you have to stand in rags, stand straight and square your shoulders. Even though you may not have shoes on your feet, you can still stand straight. And it won't be long that there will be shoes on your feet. Not only shoes, but there'll be socks on your feet. Stand straight. Square your shoulders. An unconquerable soul. But self -pity will make those shoulders droop. Self -pity will take the glow, the shine out of those eyes. Self -pity will destroy the soul. Self -pity will destroy the real you. Pity will destroy love. I know this is some more of that old -fashioned Missouri cornbread. There's not a bit of butter on it. There's not even the smell of molasses. Stand up straight even if you have to stand in your rags. Stand unquivering in your wounds. God alone knows what's around the corner. God alone knows if there's anything around the corner. But this moment is yours. This is your moment. This is your life. You are somebody. You're an individual. God has a plan for you. Your soul is yours. Whatever fate may have done to your body or your purse, your soul is still yours. You're still a part of God's plan. You're still a part of your generation. You're personal to God. In his great mind is a perfect plan for you. The stamp of God is upon you. You're somebody. You're not just a number. You're somebody. In the sight of God. He's marked you on that thumb. He has marked you. No one in the whole world and no one who has ever lived or no one who will ever live in the future will ever have the same fingerprints, the same print on his thumb. You're marked. You're not just an animal. You're not one of the herd. Unnoticed, unloved, unwanted. There's one who loves you. There's one who's interested in you. There's hope for you. There's victory for you. There's success for you. You're a child of his love and his keeping. No, beloved, stand up straight, even if you have to stand straight in rags. Stand straight, even though you have to stand alone. Stand straight, even though there may be annoying for food in your stomach. Stand straight. Hold fast to that proud treasure. Do not change it for any man's pity. Sure? The underprivileged person has my sympathy. You have my love. That is the reason I'm talking to you right now the way I'm talking. But remember something. The overprivileged person in our civilization is in far greater danger than the underprivileged. That's right. They are the disrupted souls and bodies of our civilization. I know a woman who is so wealthy. She is so wealthy. But her body is wracked with pain and disease. And most of it she's brought on herself. Most of the time she has to be carried from one room to the other. But as they carry her, she desires The jewels to be hung around her neck. And jewels on her fingers. And yet, she's perhaps the most unhappy person in the whole world. The most unhappy person living. Few friends. if any. Oh, she has had husbands, not one, but two, and more. But the one thing she lacks most is love. Yeah, you're rich. if just one person loves you. You're a millionaire if you love your brother. You're rich. Happiness. You can't pursue happiness and catch it. Happiness comes upon you unawares. While you're helping others. Not while you're talking about yourself. The happiest person in the whole world is the person who has forgotten himself. Do you want real contentment? Do you want real happiness? Learn to forget yourself. I mean that. Just learn to forget yourself. For real happiness comes when you are completely unaware of yourself, when you're being lost to self in helping others. And there'll be millions of people who will live and die and never know what I'm talking about. You see, we're living in a generation where we have all become so self -centered. What do I get out of this? What can the government give me? What is there in it for me? It isn't whether I'm capable of holding the job, but how much do I get out of it? Uh -huh. Happiness is like perfume. You can't spray it on others without getting some on yourself. Happiness does not depend upon a full pocketbook. You know, we've gotten the wrong sense of values. Some of the happiest people I've ever seen in my life weren't rich people. In fact, there are very few... rich people who are happy. It isn't because they're unhappy because of the riches. It isn't that at all. But so very often they depend on their full pocketbook to make them happy. And it just doesn't work that way. Happiness does not depend upon a full pocketbook. but upon a mind that's full of rich thoughts and a heart full of rich emotions. Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It's measured by the spirit in which you meet the problems of life. Happiness doesn't come from doing what we like to do, but from liking what we have to do. There's just something about it. Oh, sure. Don't stop and think, now, do I like my job? Now, do I want to stay here in the radio studio hour after hour, the sun shining out there? There are a thousand things I could be doing. Oh, dear me, I like the sunshine just as much as you do. I like anyone else in the whole world. But do you understand why I'm talking to you when I spend hours and hours and hours in your home? Do you realize that when I'm talking to you, I'm enclosed in a studio? Not one ray of sunshine coming through? You ask me if I like what I'm doing? I found out that happiness doesn't come from... just doing what we like to do, but from liking what we have to do. And when one man or one woman writes and says, that broadcast changed my whole life, then, beloved, I feel repaid for doing what we have to do. Real happiness. God bless you.