When we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with great sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the deep emotional journey of personal transformation, highlighting both sorrow for past mistakes and joy for personal growth.
Charles Spurgeon's quote emphasizes the dual nature of self-reflection in the process of personal conversion or transformation. It suggests that while we must recognize and lament our former selves and the mistakes of our past, we should also celebrate our current state with joy and gratitude for the growth we have achieved, even acknowledging that we may not have fully earned such blessings. This balance of sorrow and joy creates a profound understanding of our own journey and the importance of humility in our progression.
In practice
During a personal testimony at a church gathering.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
Look behind you: What have you learned? Look around you: What is happening to others? Look above you: What does God expect of you? Look besides you: What resources are available to you?
Eat bitter, taste sweet," Frank said. "I hate that proverb." "But it's true. What do they call it these days---no pain, no gain? Same concept. You do the easy thing, the appealing thing, the peaceful thing, mostly it turns out sour in the end. But if you take the hard path---ah, that's how you reap the sweet rewards. Duty. Sacrifice. They mean something.
Most pilots learn, when they pin on their wings and go out and get in a fighter, especially, that one thing you don't do, you don't believe anything anybody tells you about an airplane.
Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.
In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way.
It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.
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