| Finding the Way |
Chapter 17 |
Page 6 |
There is not one of us who may not go out from any religious service, any hour of devotion, ready to make others stronger. People are looking to us for strength, for comfort, for food for their hunger. We do not know what we are to others – to weak ones, to timid souls, to tempted ones, to sorrowing ones, to lonely ones, how much they need us, how they depend on us, how we may help them. One writes to another:
“I wish that I might tell you what you are
To me–you seem so fine and strong and true,
So bold, and yet so gentle, so apart
From petty strivings that confuse men’s minds.
I wish that I might make you understand
How your clean, brave young life has made me brave,
How I am cheered and strengthened and upheld,
When I consider that the world holds you.
A hero; in a world of false ideals
Your truth, your worth, has blazed its own brave way.
Yes, I would have you know this, know how dear
My heart holds what you stand for, for I fear
You might do something that you might not do,
My dream’s embodiment, if you but knew.”
We do not know how other lives may be hurt if we show any lack of the spirit of Christ. The world needs our best life, our bravest words, our noblest heroisms, our tenderest love, our most self forgetful help. Let us rest in the tenderness of the love of Christ until our lives glow with its blessed warmth, and then go out to be Christ to others.
We need communing with Christ to get our visions of duty, our ideals for life. But we must be ready then to go down into the deepest valleys, among the sorest human needs, even where sin is doing its worst, to do the lowest tasks and the most distasteful duties.
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