| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 12 |
Page 4 |
Or if there is no such need in any of those who come in and spoil your dream of quiet, perhaps the person may bring a blessing to you in the very discipline, which comes in the interruption. God wants to train us to such condition of readiness for his will that nothing he sends, no call that he makes, shall ever disturb us or cause one moment’s chafing or murmuring. Oftentimes it takes a long while, with many lessons, to bring us to this state of preparedness for his will. The more resistance and chafing there is when any bit of God’s will breaks into our plans, the more need there is for such interruptions, until the lesson is well learned.
Once our Lord himself took his disciples apart to rest awhile, since there were so many coming and going that they had scarcely time to eat. But no sooner had they reached their place of resting than the eager people, flocking around the shore of the lake, began to gather about them with their needs, their sorrows, and their sicknesses. But Christ did not murmur when his little plan for rest was thus broken in upon. He did not resent the coming of the throngs nor refuse to receive them. He did not say to them that he had come to this quiet place for needed rest and they must excuse him. He forgot his weariness and gave himself at once, without reluctance or the slightest withholding, with all of his heart’s loving warmth and earnestness, to the serving and helping of the people who had so thoughtlessly followed him to his retirement.
At the well of Jacob, too, though so weary that he sank down exhausted to wait alone till his disciples came with food for his hunger, he yet turned instantly to the serving of the poor, sinful woman who came to draw water. He might have pleaded that he was too tired, but he did not. He even spoke of what he had done for the woman as the will of his Father.
From the example of our Master we get our lesson. He may follow us into our vacations and to our vacation-resorts with fragments of his will. He may call us out into the darkness and the storm on errands of mercy after we have wrought all day and have put on our slippers and prepared ourselves for a cozy rest with our loved ones around the home lamp. He may wake us up out of our sleep by the loud ringing of the bell, and send us out at midnight on some ministry of kindness.
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