. If we were directing the affairs
of our own lives, by J. R. Miller. We often think we
could do better if we were directing the affairs of our own lives. We think we could get more happiness
and greater good out of life if things were in our hands. We would at once eliminate all
that is painful and unpleasant in our lot. We would have only
prosperities, with no adversities, only joys, with no sorrows. We would exclude all pain and
trouble from our life. Our days would all be sunny,
with blue skies, and no clouds or storms. Our paths would all
be soft and easy, and strewn with flowers, without thorns
or any rough places. Would we not be happier if we
could direct our own affairs and leave out the painful, the
bitter, the adverse, and the sorrowful? So most of us would
probably say at first, before we have thought of the question
deeply and looked on to the end. But really, the greatest misfortune
that could come to us in this world would be to have the direction
of the affairs and the shaping of the experiences of our lives
put into our own hands. We have no wisdom to know what
is best for ourselves. Today is not all of life. There is a long future, perhaps
many years in this world, and then immortality hereafter. What
would give us greatest pleasure today might work us harm in days
to come. Present gratification might cost
us untold loss and hurt in the future. We want pleasure, plenty,
and prosperity. But perhaps we need pain, self-denial,
and the giving up of things that we greatly prize. We shrink from
suffering, from sacrifice, from struggle, but perhaps these are
the very experiences which will do the most good for us, which
will best mature our Christian graces, which will fit us for
the largest service to God and man. We should always remember
that the object of living here is not merely to have a present
comfort, to get along with the least trouble, to gather the
most we can of the world's treasures, to win the brightest fame. We
are here to grow into the beauty of Christ and to do the portion
of God's will that belongs to us. There is something wonderfully
inspiring in the thought that God has a plan and a purpose
for our lives, for each life. We do not come drifting into
this world and do not drift through it like waves on the ocean. We
are sent from God, each one of us, with a divine plan for his
life, something God wants us to do, someplace he wants us
to fill. All through our lives, we are
in the hands of God, who chooses our place and orders our circumstances,
and makes all things work together for our good and his glory. It is the highest honor that
could be conferred upon us to occupy such a place in the thought
of God. We cannot doubt that His way
for us is better than ours, since He is infinitely wiser than we
are and loves us so. It may be painful and hard, but
in the pain and the hardness there is blessing. Of course,
we may not know all the reasons there are in the divine mind
for the pains and sufferings that come into our lives, or
what God's design for us in these trials is. Yet without discovering
any reasons at all, however, we may still trust God, who loves
us with an infinite love, and whose wisdom also is infinite. When we get to heaven, we shall
know that God has made no mistake in anything He has done for us.
However, He may have broken into our plans and spoiled our pleasant
dreams. It should be reason for measureless
gratitude that our lives are not in our own poor feeble hands,
but in the hands of our infinitely wise and loving Father. My times are in your hands. Psalm 31 15