| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 4 |
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We should get it settled in our consciousness that the purpose of God for our life here is to have us grow into Christ’s thought and ideal for us. The divine purpose for Simon, from the day he was first brought to Christ, was to have him become Peter. The master has the same vision for each one of us. We are not in this world merely to accomplish a certain amount of work, but to be fashioned into strength and beauty of character. If we would always remember this, we should not be perplexed so often by the mysteries of our lives. If joy is ours, it is to make us better and a greater blessing to others. If sorrow is ours, it is to purify us and bring out some line of Christ’s image in us more clearly. If our hope are disappointed, it is because God has some better things for us than that which we so earnestly desired. If we are called to endure pain, it is because the best in us can be called out only by pain. If bereavement comes and we are left without the strong human arm we have leaned upon heretofore, it is because there are elements of strength in our life that never could be developed unless the human support were taken away. If our burdens are heavy, it is because we grow best under burdens. If we are wronged by others, it is to teach us better the great lessons of patience and sweet temper. If our circumstances are uncongenial and our condition hard, it is that we may be disciplined into self control, and may learn to be content in whatsoever state we are. Always the Master is teaching us new lessons, making us into the beauty of the pattern He has set for us, and preparing us for greater usefulness and better service.
Christ calls on every one for his best. We have not yet reached the best. There are qualities slumbering in us which, if waked, and called out, would make us nobler, worthier, and more useful. There are gifts in us, even unsuspected now, which if discovered, developed, and given to Christ will add immeasurably to the value of our lives. Think of this old fisherman, pulling ropes, dragging nets, selling fish, blustering, swearing, uncouth, uncultured, yet having in him, undreamed of either by himself or by his neighbours, all the splendid powers which afterward were brought out by Christ’s teaching and training, making him one of the mightiest forces for good the world has ever known. There are many Simons today, men and women, moving in the commonplaces of life, not doing much for the Master, or to make the world better, yet having in them undiscovered qualities, unimagined powers, which if found and brought out would make them great blessings in the world. The Master is looking upon them with love, saying: “Thou art Simon, only a common man, with little beauty of character, with small powers of usefulness, not doing much good, filling now only a little place; but thou shalt be called Peter, revealing splendid capacities for service and for usefulness, and blessing the world with thy ministry of love.”
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