“Night is drawing nigh.
For all that has been-Thanks!
To all that shall be-Yes!”
At the end of 1952, Dag Hammarskjold was at crossroads. The dutiful son of Hjalmar Hammarskjold, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Hammarskiold had taken an ambitious career path but had often found himself unfulfilled and overburdened. For many years he had written down the insights and challenges of his life (his Markings), and these writings unveiled a man torn between doing his duty and personal despair.
But something changed in the beginning of 1953, when Hammarskjold wrote the above phrase and an affirming tone took hold. What happened? Hammarskjold later wrote: “I don’t know Who-or what-put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone--or Something--and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self surrender, had a goal.”
And the rest was indeed history. Hammarskjold became one of the great peacemakers of the 20th Century, a one-of-a-kind man of tireless action amidst perceptive contemplation. Later in 1953 he became Secretary-General of the United Nations, and soon after his election he wrote: “To be free, to be able to stand up and leave everything behind, without looking back. To say Yes.....”
Ah, Yes. Yes means I’m in. Bring it on. An assent and an affirmation. It means I’ll cross the Rubicon, saying no to going back. It means I’ll climb the mountain, assessing the risks but moving ahead.
Yes is thrilling but also challenging; unfortunately, often too challenging for me. Fears of failure and desires for control make me more of a no guy, knowing much more of what I don’t want to do than what I do. And even when I do want to pull the trigger my no’s morph into maybe’s, a paralyzing assessment of all options which often leaves me stuck in the middle.
But I deeply want to be a yes guy, and Dag has much to teach me. With my fears I need motivation to say yes, and the fact that my night is drawing nigh (I’m 59) means time is of the essence. And although regret over my life of no’s can distract me, I can give Thanks over what has been and how God can turn into what will be.
And as Hammarskjold emphasized, Yes doesn’t come in a vacuum, it is said to Someone or Something.
Yes to God, the ultimate Someone.
Yes to myself, and what I can be.
Yes to life, in all its dimensions.
Yes to surrender--of self--to life.
Yes to suffering, Yes to death,
Yes to now.
And even Yes to No. When reading through Hammarskjold’s spiritual classic Markings, you find the Dag Yes not based on some vapid positive thinking but grounded in the challenging realities of life and growth. “You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.”
Hammarskjold earned his Yes’s in life and death: recently the UN decided to reopen an investigation of the tragic air crash in 1961 that took his life on a peacekeeping mission to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia). He who became “certain that existence is meaningful” lived an amazingly meaningful life, a life of Yes to life’s challenges and fullness.
“You dare your Yes --and experience a meaning.
You repeat your Yes--and all things acquire a meaning.
When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything but a Yes?”
For all that has been-Thanks!
To all that shall be-Yes!”
At the end of 1952, Dag Hammarskjold was at crossroads. The dutiful son of Hjalmar Hammarskjold, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Hammarskiold had taken an ambitious career path but had often found himself unfulfilled and overburdened. For many years he had written down the insights and challenges of his life (his Markings), and these writings unveiled a man torn between doing his duty and personal despair.
But something changed in the beginning of 1953, when Hammarskjold wrote the above phrase and an affirming tone took hold. What happened? Hammarskjold later wrote: “I don’t know Who-or what-put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone--or Something--and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self surrender, had a goal.”
And the rest was indeed history. Hammarskjold became one of the great peacemakers of the 20th Century, a one-of-a-kind man of tireless action amidst perceptive contemplation. Later in 1953 he became Secretary-General of the United Nations, and soon after his election he wrote: “To be free, to be able to stand up and leave everything behind, without looking back. To say Yes.....”
Ah, Yes. Yes means I’m in. Bring it on. An assent and an affirmation. It means I’ll cross the Rubicon, saying no to going back. It means I’ll climb the mountain, assessing the risks but moving ahead.
Yes is thrilling but also challenging; unfortunately, often too challenging for me. Fears of failure and desires for control make me more of a no guy, knowing much more of what I don’t want to do than what I do. And even when I do want to pull the trigger my no’s morph into maybe’s, a paralyzing assessment of all options which often leaves me stuck in the middle.
But I deeply want to be a yes guy, and Dag has much to teach me. With my fears I need motivation to say yes, and the fact that my night is drawing nigh (I’m 59) means time is of the essence. And although regret over my life of no’s can distract me, I can give Thanks over what has been and how God can turn into what will be.
And as Hammarskjold emphasized, Yes doesn’t come in a vacuum, it is said to Someone or Something.
Yes to God, the ultimate Someone.
Yes to myself, and what I can be.
Yes to life, in all its dimensions.
Yes to surrender--of self--to life.
Yes to suffering, Yes to death,
Yes to now.
And even Yes to No. When reading through Hammarskjold’s spiritual classic Markings, you find the Dag Yes not based on some vapid positive thinking but grounded in the challenging realities of life and growth. “You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.”
Hammarskjold earned his Yes’s in life and death: recently the UN decided to reopen an investigation of the tragic air crash in 1961 that took his life on a peacekeeping mission to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia). He who became “certain that existence is meaningful” lived an amazingly meaningful life, a life of Yes to life’s challenges and fullness.
“You dare your Yes --and experience a meaning.
You repeat your Yes--and all things acquire a meaning.
When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything but a Yes?”
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