"The Problem of How to Live" Kathryn Kuhlman

Sometimes I think that we have literally forgotten how to live. I mean that. I look around about me. I see people who are getting themselves in such messes. Messes that they'll never get out of. They are so confused. There was never a time when there was greater frustration. than there is today. Men and women are living contrary to all of God's laws, all rules, all regulations that God has set down. And as surely as there's a God on His throne, and as surely as God has made certain rules and regulation, So sure is the fact that when man goes contrary to these laws and these regulations he's going to find himself in a mess. And that's the reason the world is in the condition that it is in today. We have literally forgotten how to live. What's the most important thing that you and I can do in this life? The answer is just this. The most important thing is to learn how to live. And there are people who have all the answers regarding everything. They are intelligent. They know all about everything that's important except the thing that's most important, and that is how to live. they haven't the slightest idea how to live. Life on Earth is a very precious possession, especially when you consider that it doesn't last very long. Just be dead on this for a moment. Consider something that is vitally important. Do you want to know that man's Life, even at its longest span, is mighty short. Oh, you say I'm 20 years of age now, and oh, I have my whole life before me. At 20, you feel that you're going to live forever. Oh, it's glorious. It's wonderful. But it isn't long before you find you're 40. At 50, you find that your life is behind you. The man 70 today stands amazed at the fact that life has gone so quickly. Think how quickly the past five years have gone. Think how quickly the past year has gone. Yes, ma 'am. Life on this earth is a very precious possession. And it doesn't last very long. And while we have it, our great privilege is to do the best that we can with it. And a very strange thing about life is that everybody has got to live it for himself. Everybody. You know, that's one thing that I've had to learn, and it's been one of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn. And that is the fact that I have tried over and over again to live somebody's life for them. I'm so interested in people. I can't help it. I guess I was born that way, or else it is a precious gift that God has given me. This thing of preaching the gospel isn't a business with me. When it becomes a business, I quit. I'm through. When it is nothing more or less than getting up and preaching a sermon, when it is nothing more or less than just standing on the platform for two and three hours, when it is nothing more or less than just a radio program or appearing on television, Then I quit. And through. When it becomes a business. Then, beloved, Catherine Cooman will take herself out of that business. No, ma 'am. When this ministry no longer ceases to be something that's personal. When I forget that you are a human being with troubles and burdens and heartache, when I no longer can weep with you, when I am no longer touched by your troubles and your heartache, then I have lost the most precious possession that I have today. But along with this personal feeling, I have also found that I have been at fault in that I have so loved you, have so desired to help you, that I have tried to live your life for you. And you can't do it. That's the strange thing about life. Everybody has got to live it for himself. You simply cannot hand down to other people the wisdom of their predecessors. Parents live, they acquire some wisdom, then they try to hand this wisdom down to their children, and then what happens? The children may take some of it, but some of it they neglect or turn aside from. And so they make the same old mistakes their parents made. And then they get burnt and hurt, just as their parents did. And when they get to be parents, then their children have the same experience. And it's just like that. I'd give anything in the world if I could take all of my young people. And I could somehow... Teach them how to keep from being hurt. How to keep from being burnt. If only I could help them to keep from going through those deep waters. But I can't do it. It's something that every one of us have got to experience and learn for ourselves. It seems that the wisdom of the human race runs out with every generation. For each person has to acquire it for himself. The success or the failure of your life depends depends upon how much of it you get. I have had to learn these lessons myself. I have gotten all of my experience the hard way. I have had to learn for myself. You may say, oh, Miss Cooman has great wisdom in dealing with people. I've been told that over and over again. But, beloved, watch it. I have had to learn myself. You cannot give to anyone else any more than you have experienced yourself. We're trying to hand some of these things out to our young people, as we say, on the silver platter. You don't get to think that I'm talking about through books, through much learning. This is something that our universities, our colleges, cannot teach men and women. We must get these things through experience. And experience is the greatest teacher that I know anything about. Some people never know how to live. They can die at 90, never having learned how to live. There are millions of people who have reached 50, 55, 60, and to this very day they have never learned how to live. They never learn, no matter how old they get. They know as little about it when they finish as when they started. This is a very sad fact. They are the ones who mess up their lives. All right, now watch. What is the secret? The secret of life is not in books. It is not in a font pattern. The secret of how to live is in the identification of oneself with a person. The one person of all people who really knew how to live and that one person is Jesus Christ. And you'll never know how to live until you identify yourself with this one person. The one who has all the answers. The one who has made all the laws. And when you identify yourself with this person and you live according to his laws, his plans, you can't miss. But when you live your life without... identifying yourself with this person as soon as you live and breathe, you're going to find yourself in a mess sooner or later. Now, let's talk about this person. Let's talk about Jesus. Let's talk about identifying ourselves with him. Who is he? To an awful lot of people, He's just a misty figure. They see him in stained glass windows where he's given a kind of ethereal look. And he seems to be so remote. And sometimes the only time they really see him is when they are sitting in a church and viewing that stained glass window. That's about the only time they think of him. They only identify themselves with him as they are sitting in that church pew and behold the beauty of the colors in that stained glass window. That's all that he is to many a person. A kind of ethereal person. Remote. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Savior of mankind. But he is more than that. You say, how could he be more than that? But he is. He is more than a religious figure. Jesus is the personification of that tremendous thing called the life force, the universal mind, out of which we come, part of which we are, and in which we find life in its fullness. And when you get aboard the life force, and the life force gets into you, then you really learn how to live. Man has got to link himself to something bigger than himself. He's got to do it. If he doesn't, he'll be overcome by defeat. Frustration. That's what's wrong with this generation today. That's the reason we find millions of people frustrated today. The mother in that home is so frustrated. That's what's wrong with her. Analyze her. It's the case of frustration. Why? It isn't that she isn't intelligent. She is. But the cause of her frustration is the fact that she has never linked herself to a power that's greater than herself. A person that is bigger than her problems. That man, he has everything. And yet, he finds himself defeated. The nervous tension that's there, analyze it, is frustration. What's the cause of the frustration? He has not linked himself with a person, a personality, a power. that is greater than himself. And man is so constituted, God has so ordained that no human being can know how to live and can live a full life with out him it's like that oh bless the lord oh my soul oh lord my god thou art very great Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverst thyself with light as with a garment, who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire, who laid the fount of the earth that it should not be removed forever. Link yourself with this person and with his power and, beloved, you will know how to live. And you will never... be defeated on a single score. Never. Unless you consent to be. The secret of learning how to live is found in the reality of God himself. God bless you.