I normally write the initial draft of my rantings a week or two before I send them out. That gives me time to edit out the incoherencies and glaring grammatical errors. This time around, I was all set to schedule the distribution when I heard a talk given by someone far more articulate than myself.

In fact, just the quotes that he managed to amass tell a better story than I could hope to pen. Consequently, I’ve reproduced them here for your consideration.

Deep down inside our greatest fear is that we don’t matter, that we are not important. The worst thing for you and me is not to be hated or opposed… The worst thing is to be ignored, to not matter. The thing we fear the most is that we are unimportant, marginal. Every human heart tries to manufacture glory … If we think we are small, we act big. — Timothy Keller

I don’ know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. — Albert Schweitzer

Those whose activities are devoted to bringing themselves happiness… are far less likely to be happy than those whose efforts are devoted to making others happy. — Bernard Rimland

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. — Eric Hoffer

Doing nothing for others is the undoing of oneself …The heart that goes out of itself gets large and full of joy. This is the great secret of the inner life. We do ourselves the most good doing something for others. — Horace Mann

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self. — Albert Einstein

The harder you work at this empty life, the less you are. Nothing comes of ambition like this but ashes. — Jeremiah 51:58

…armed with a steady influx of trophies just for showing up, “I Am Special’ coloring books and princess parties, it is hard for kids to understand why the abundance of ego might be bad for them.
— Jean M. Twenge

The antidote for rampant selfishness… humility, evaluating yourself more accurately, mindfulness and putting others first.
— Jean M. Twenge

The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. — C.S.Lewis

Don’t aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of ones surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen… you have to let happen by not caring about it. — Viktor Frankl

Happiness is like a cat. If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you’ll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap. — William Bennett

Those who seek happiness too intensely will have little of it.
— Calvin Miller

I have an iron will. And all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. I’m always struggling with that fear. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting, and I find a way to get myself out of that again and again. My drive in life is the horrible fear of being mediocre. That’s always been pushing me, pushing me. Even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will. — Madonna

The world is waking up to the reality that a “self” orientation… a me-first mentality… is a sure path to misery. — Keith Stewart

All my favorite people are broken…
All my friends are part saint and part sinner
We lean on each other, try to rise above
We are not afraid to admit we are all still beginners
We are all late bloomers when it comes to love
— Over The Rhine lyrics

Just love one another

— The entirety of the Apostle John’s last sermon

All of these quotes are part of a talk given by pastor Keith Stewart as part of a series titled “Healing the Self”. If you’d like to hear the talk in its entirety or any of the related messages, just click the link below.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

A meeting of great minds who think alike