| Finding the Way |
Chapter 12 |
Page 6 |
It is true also in the realm of spiritual life that every one has his own work allotted to him. There is something for every one. In the building of the wall in Nehemiah’s time, each man built over against his own house, and thus the entire wall was soon repaired. We will easily find our work for Christ if we will look for it right opposite our own door. We never need to journey far away to come upon it. The trouble with too many is that they pass by the work which is at their hand, not dreaming that it is the thing given to them to do, and expect to find something unusual in some unwonted place. The artist who had sough everywhere for some fit material for his Madonna, found it at last in a common fire log in the wood yard. Our holiest duties are always near at hand, not far off.
Then our work is not what some other one is doing, but something which is all our own. Paul illustrates this by comparing the church to a human body. There are many members in a body, and each has its own distinct function. If we had only hands, or if our body were all feet or all hands, we would be only monstrosities. So if all men were fishermen or all were farmers or all were lawyers, there would be no society. In the line of spiritual work there is also the widest diversity of things to be done, and if we all had the same gift, with ability for doing just one thing, how could the great field of duty be covered? But there are diversities of gifts, so that no place shall be left unfilled, so that for no task there shall be a hand lacking. “To each one his work.”
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