| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 14 |
Page 7 |
Once Jesus, tired and hungry, sat down by an old well to rest, while his disciples went to the village to buy food. He was too weary to go with them; but while he sat there exhausted, resting, a woman came to draw water. Weary as he was, he treated her with compassionate interest, entering into conversation with her, leading to spiritual themes, and saving her from her own sinful life.
That fragment of ministry was his Father’s will for that hour. To be sure it broke into his rest, but he forgot his weariness in blessing a sad, lost life. Then when the disciples came with the food he was no longer hungry. They could not understand it. They thought some one must have brought him bread in their absence, but he said in explanation, and the words reveal a blessed secret of the spiritual life, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of … my meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” Taking up the duty that came to him, he found in doing of it real food for his life. It is always so. Do the duty God sends; do it gladly, lovingly, and you will find a blessing wrapped up in it. We get the goodness of divine love by doing the divine will.
Many people complain that they cannot be sure of the right path in life. They are continually coming to points where duty is uncertain. The way before them is dark, even close up to their feet. The horizon seems to shut down like a heavy curtain, or a thick wall, right before them.
But here, again, this principle applies: “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know.” We can learn the path of duty only by walking in it. There is no promise of anything more than this. The word of God is a lamp unto our feet; not a sun to light a hemisphere, but a lamp or a lantern to carry in our hand, to give light unto our feet, to show us just one little step at a time. If we move on, taking the step that lies full in the light, we carry the light forward too, and it then shows us another step. That is, we learn to know the road by walking in it. If we will not take the one step that is made clear, we cannot know the part of the way that is hidden in the shadow. But doing the duty that lies nearest will ever bring us to the next duty. Doing we shall know.
These are but little fragments of a great lesson, which has very wide-reaching applications. We may get at least the heart of it, which is, that, doing our duty as it is made clear to us, we shall learn. Do the little of God’s will you now perceive, and he will reveal more and more of it to you. Instead of wondering what mystery the long, unopened future holds for you, take the task or the ministry of the moment now in sight, and do that.
God’s will is an angel, bearing in his hand a little lamp to light you step by step on your heavenward way, at last bringing you to the door of home. If there are perplexities before you, simply begin to do your duty, – the little of it that is clear, – and the perplexities will vanish. If the task set for you seems impossible, still begin the doing of it. It would not be a duty and be rally impossible. God never requires anything he does not intend to help us to do. The giving of a duty always implies strength to do it. In due time the mountain will yield to your faithful strokes. You will learn by doing. Life will brighten as you go on.
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