Encouragement to Common Service
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Dear friend,
I like to think we do not only our spiritual acts — but even the work of our common days for Christ; that he accepts even the lowliest task-work as holy service when we do it in his name and to please him. When Jesus said, referring to his Father, "I do always those things that please him," he had in mind not only his preaching and miracle-working and the comforting of the people — but also everything else that belonged to his life. He had the same thought in his mind during the first thirty years, when he was a child, a boy, a young man, in Nazareth, when he was working at the carpenter's bench, or when he was engaged in other tasks and duties. You are just as much working for Christ during the hours when you are in the office, with your quick pen and your busy brain — as you are when on Sunday you take up your church work and do that. He is interested in all that you think or say or do, and is pleased when you do even the lowliest, commonest things in his name, and conscious of his eye upon you.
Evidently God has given you the capacity, as well as the opportunity, for doing sweet and beautiful things for the Master. This is the highest honor that could be conferred upon you. I think the work which will count for most in the end, when God reckons up the services of his children, will not be that of those who have wrought in conspicuous places, with the plaudits of the world ringing in their ears, but the work of the lowly ones, toiling in obscurity, hearing no word of commendation, receiving no human approval — yet going on patiently, sweetly, beautifully, day after day, doing their tasks just as cheerfully, as conscientiously, and as well as if they were working for the eyes of a million people.
You do not know what possibilities of usefulness and helpfulness God has put into your life. The way to develop these possibilities, is just to go quietly and faithfully on, day after day, doing the things which come to your hand each day, and doing them all sweetly and well. God never leads us into large places by jumps. Heaven is not gained by sudden bounds. We must climb up step by step to gain the lofty heights. The way to reach the larger service, is to do the humbler and lowlier services as they come to us. The old motto, "Do you next thing," contains a world of wisdom. If we always do the next thing — then it will lead us to another next thing, and this to another, and so on, each one lifting our feet a little higher, leading us into a little wider field. I love to think of the divine guidance somewhat after the fashion of that verse in the Psalm which says: "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path."
You notice the word is lamp or lantern only — not a sun, a radiating hemisphere — but a little light we carry in our hand which brightens only one step at a time.
You have your present duties and your present experiences. Be just the best, truest, noblest girl you can be, and the sweetest, most trusting, most loving Christian — doing the common task-work of these common days just as beautifully as if you were a princess, bearing great responsibilities. Thus God will make your life a blessing, and lead you on to whatever larger things he may have for you to do. But I am sure that you will always keep in mind this truth, that the largest sphere in this world is not the sphere of publicity, where human applause is heard — but the sphere of service, where you can do good to others about you.
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