ARE YOU UP-TIGHT OR UPRIGHT?
Success in an up-tight age must include the ability to
be calm and confident.
ARE YOU UP-TIGHT OR UPRIGHT?
I John 1:5-7
Up-tight is a very popular description of people's feelings these days.
It means the same thing as "tense" or "on edge." Up-tight people are under
stress. They lose their "cool" or calmness quite easily. They are not able to
"hang loose" and enjoy life. One wit said: "America used to be called a melting
pot but now it has become a pressure cooker."
What causes the pressure? Whence comes the up-tightness? There are several
causes - feelings of guilt, not being certain about where life is headed, and lack
of a solid foundation to build life upon.
Up-tight folks are practical atheists. Oh, they probably would be offended
at being called practical atheists, many even go to church. Yet the fact is,
they have no real god but themselves. Their creed could be stated: "I think
I can, all by my self." Their philosophy is aptly put in a poem that has become
immortal because it reflects the belief of so many in this up-tight age. The
poem: "Invictus."
"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as a pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
"In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.
"Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade.
Yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
"It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scrolls.
I am the Master of my fate,
I am the Captain of my soul."
-2-
Do you see how much pressure a position like that places on a person? To
say: "I am the Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul" is to say, "I
am my God'" Live with that for a while and you become extremely up-tight be-
cause there will always be a gnawing awareness that you are not big enough to
be your god. That ...
Success in an up-tight age must include the ability to
be calm and confident.
ARE YOU UP-TIGHT OR UPRIGHT?
I John 1:5-7
Up-tight is a very popular description of people's feelings these days.
It means the same thing as "tense" or "on edge." Up-tight people are under
stress. They lose their "cool" or calmness quite easily. They are not able to
"hang loose" and enjoy life. One wit said: "America used to be called a melting
pot but now it has become a pressure cooker."
What causes the pressure? Whence comes the up-tightness? There are several
causes - feelings of guilt, not being certain about where life is headed, and lack
of a solid foundation to build life upon.
Up-tight folks are practical atheists. Oh, they probably would be offended
at being called practical atheists, many even go to church. Yet the fact is,
they have no real god but themselves. Their creed could be stated: "I think
I can, all by my self." Their philosophy is aptly put in a poem that has become
immortal because it reflects the belief of so many in this up-tight age. The
poem: "Invictus."
"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as a pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
"In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.
"Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade.
Yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
"It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scrolls.
I am the Master of my fate,
I am the Captain of my soul."
-2-
Do you see how much pressure a position like that places on a person? To
say: "I am the Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul" is to say, "I
am my God'" Live with that for a while and you become extremely up-tight be-
cause there will always be a gnawing awareness that you are not big enough to
be your god. That ...
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