| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 14 |
Page 4 |
The particular thing that God made us to do is always the thing we can do best, the only thing that we can do perfectly. We are not to suppose that this is always necessarily a large thing, something brilliant, something conspicuous. It may be something very small, something obscure. Indeed, the things which seem most commonplace may be most important in their place in the great plan of God, and may prove of greatest value to the world. Helen Keller writes suggestively on this subject: “I used to think that I should be thwarted in my desire to do something useful. But I have found that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, and yet the work open to me is endless. The gladdest labourer in the vineyard may be a cripple. Darwin could work only half an hour at a time; yet in many diligent half hours he laid anew the foundations of philosophy. I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as thought they were great and noble. It is my service to think how I can best fulfill the demands that each day makes upon me, and to recognize that others can do what I cannot. Green, the historian, tells us that the world is moving along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker; and that thought alone suffices to guide me in this dark world and wide. I love the good that others do, for their activity is an assurance that whether I can help or not, the true and the good will stand sure.”
Every member of the body of Christ has something to do. Some members do great things, some only small things. Every Christian has a work all his own. It is not precisely the same as the work of any other, but it is his own, and he fills his place in the universe best when he does just that. Some one defined a gentleman as a man who has nothing to do. But that is not a true definition of God’s gentleman. There is no Christian who has nothing to do. Each one is to find what his part is, and then do it. Sometimes people attempt to do things they cannot do, leaving untouched, meanwhile, things they could do beautifully. If one has not been able to do what he has been trying to do, he is not to conclude that there is nothing for him – there is some other work which he can do, and which is waiting somewhere for his coming.
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