Similarities between The Poem “If” & Biblical References
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies.
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.
If you can dream, and not make dreams your master. If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.
Or watch the things you’ve given your life to, broken, yet stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
and lose, and start again at your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and so hold on when there is nothing in you, except the will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch.
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you. If all men count with you, but none too much.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and – which is more – you’ll be a man, my son.
Rudyard Kipling
The Above YouTube Music Videos Captures the Essence of Kipling’s Poem
How odd. The secular culture reveres Kipling’s wisdom, but ridicules the Bible as foolish & silly.
There is no distinction between Kipling’s Insights & the Bible’s Wisdom
- The humility to accept unjust blame, or lies, or hatred (“Turn the other cheek”).
- The patience to treat Triumph & Disaster just the same, (As Job taught us through gain & loss.)
- The awareness of possessions’ lack of value – “lose, and start at your beginnings” (Solomon – “Vanity. All is vanity)
- The strength to “hold on when there is nothing in you” (St. Paul, writing inspiring letters from prison)
- The confidence to hear the truth twisted & your life broken, yet build it up (Good Friday & Easter Sunday)
BTW: The word “Confidence” comes from 2 Latin words: “Cum Fide” – “With Faith”
Kipling’s Insights & the Bible’s Wisdom: Accept them. Enjoy them. Live them. The Experience is Priceless.
Above YouTube Music Video Captures the Essence of the Above Blog Post Message.
The Combination of Majestic Music, with a Poignant Picture, and Insightful Poetry & Prose
connects The Sanctuary of our Soul to the Bosom of God.
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