Step To The Drum Within Your Own Heart
Thoreau once wrote, "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drum. Let him step to the music which he hears."
Bill Shakespeare said it differently. He wrote, "This above all, to thine own self be true ..."
And recently there was a wordsmith on the radio who said, "Linger to hear the speech of your own heart."
Such truly eloquent pleas for the individualist, and we have not the desire or ability to improve upon them. We are but grateful that we can repeat them here, and reflect upon them in moments of leisure.
But the truth of this idea is not new with these mortals. Many centuries have passed since the Holy Spirit spoke through Paul to Timothy, "... the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned."
The New Testament speaks with accentuation to the individual, of his thinking and his actions; of his abilities and his responsibilities More than three score times does our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount point out "ye" and "you" relative to the laying down of the great principles.
The individualist has had some tough going for the last few years in many phases of life. Christianity is no exception. He has in a sense been pressured on every side to "conform", which means to act like everyone else regardless of what he thinks or knows or feels. This conformity has been touted by two types of people, the peace-at-any-price crowd who say harmony and agreement constitute the ultimate achievement of any group or organization, and those who shout for "teamwork" and "a united front" because they want to do all the quarterbacking or signal calling.
It is fortunate that such conformity never got very far in Christianity. This matter of Christianity was conceived and fitted with the individual in the sights. One has said that "Christianity is distinguished by its emphatic assertion of the worth and dignity of the individual human being." It is strong and growing today only because of people who refuse to accept, blindly and uncritically, the beliefs and choices of the multitude simply because they are of the majority.
There is, to be sure, a conformity to which we must adhere and which we cannot do without. We must conform to the New Testament. It is our authority, and it is essential to agree to its principles.
But rigid group conformity — without conviction — is something else, and it has nothing of which to boast in its favor. It implies surrender of the right and privilege to think and to decide on the basis of evidence and logic. There is denial of right to disagree, even rightly. Then, it disaffirms moral responsibility and constitutes the very antithesis of personal integrity.
The Christian's intellect, sensitivity, and volition do not stem from party conformity. They are not mass produced, nor mass directed; neither do they come from the outside, but are the attributes making up the character of the individual. Let every Christian strive to keep step to the drum within his own heart