What he wrote inspired me to stop complaining about my circumstances, to stop regretting the aspirations and ministries I have no time for because of my current responsibilities, and to trust God to give me exactly the circumstances I need to grow and glorify him at every moment : the perfect gift of right now.
[W]e love God most and serve God best by doing the thing he asks of us rather than constantly wishing we could do something else instead. ...
When we find ourselves in circumstances we don't like, we need to ask what God may be wanting to give us through those circumstances. Sometimes we are so busy resenting our circumstances, we are incapable of paying attention to God's lessons through them. Yet presumably God is seeking to give himself to us all the time, and our circumstances are one of the vehicles of his self-giving. ...
Sometimes we spend so long looking at the things we can't do, we fail to do the thing that we could - the task that lies to hand. ...
The great lesson that I am constantly having to learn is that my circumstances, far from being the enemy of my soul, are its friend, its teacher. They set the agenda, mark out the course, underline the lessons I most need to learn, and persist in dragging me back to those lessons when I want to wander off into something more appealing but less beneficial. This is not a cruelty to me, but God's kindness. He has eternity in mind, whereas we are so short-sighted. He knows what it takes to make each of us like Jesus - to make us rich in our character and fruitful in his service. ...
And so I want to say to you that there are no perfect circumstances in which to learn to follow Christ except those you are in today. That is why he has you there. I do not want to speak lightly of the difficulties some of you may be facing; I acknowledge that you may be living with desperately painful circumstances. Believe me, I know what tears are; I have shed buckets-full. But Jesus will meet you in your circumstances and make you the person a loving heavenly Father wants you to be - for his glory and for your good. ...
I close with a line from John Greenleaf Whittier, who wrote, "The cross, if rightly borne, shall be no burden, but support to thee".
Eddie Larkan, "The perfect gift of right now", The Briefing issue 351, Dec 2007, pp.16-18.
The emphasis is mine: I hope this sentence stays in my head and heart for a long time.
1 comment:
Thank you Jeannie - I needed to read this today! I am reminded of a quote that has meant a lot to me (from a footnote in one of C.S. Lewis' books I think). It talked of 'the benediction of the present moment' - as if each moment is a rich blessing from God.
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