| Finding the Way |
Chapter 22 |
Page 4 |
There is still another class of things we cannot help knowing, which it was well if we would consider ourselves as not knowing. Sometimes we have unpleasant experiences with people. They speak of us injuriously or treat us unkindly. Sometimes the hurt they do us is from want of thought, not from want of heart. There is no intention to injure us or to cause us trouble or pain – it is the result of thoughtlessness. Sometimes, indeed, it may be an unkind spirit in those about us which leads them to seek to vex us. In either case, it is not easy to endure the irritation which we cannot but suffer.
Here again there is a secret worth knowing, which, understood, takes away much of the suffering and enables us to go through the experience quietly and patiently. There is a way of forgetting such hurts, which takes from them in a great measure their power to do us real injury. A boat ploughs its way through the water of the silver lake, but in a little while the water is as smooth as ever again, retaining no trace of the rude cleaving. One would not know the glassy waters had ever been ruffled. If we can learn the lake’s lesson, it will add greatly not only to the quiet and beauty of our lives, but also to our own comfort. Whatever we may suffer from the unkindness or thoughtlessness of others, or from the uncongeniality of our environment, we shall not be disturbed or distressed. This is one of the blessings of Christian peace. We hide away in Christ, in the shelter of His love, in the secret of His presence, and there find refuge from the plotting of men and from the strife of tongues. The things which otherwise would cause us great suffering do not touch us. We meet them as though they were not. In the shelter of the love of Christ nothing harms us. We are so sustained that it is as though the trials had no existence.
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