Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 283, Issue 283, 14 March 1941, Page 7

Thoughtful Moments

Z.OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

(Supplied by. ihe Whakata

BUSY DAYS "I do everything I have to do as if I had only this one thing to do." (Armelle Nicholas, a servant maid.) "There were many coming and going, and they had no time so much as to eat." There are days when life is very : much like that. There is no silence, 110 solitude, nothing but the tramp of many feet, the sound of many voices; no chance of rest, one duty coming fast upon another. What shall I do in such a day of almqs| unbearable strain, when I feel that I can no longer live at such a pace, and yet knov,v £fit to iind relief ? ' v v Perhaps I ought to regard this sense of pressure as a call to examine my programme, and to ask whether, in all that multitude of interests and engagements there are not some that might well be laid aside. Let me ask myself if I should not achieve much more if I attempted rather less. At least I may well try to bring more order and method into my activity. I might find that by a wiser stewardship of time even the full programme that so harasses me would come weli within my grasp. Instead of panting always in the rear of the swiftly-flying hour, I should find that in my ordered life each day was long enough for the day's duty.

But most surely, in any re-order-ing of life, I must make room for quiet and prayer, in my busiest

ne Ministers' Association). days. The master said to His disciples at that distracting time, "Gome ye yourselves apart . . . . and rest awhile." And He would have me learn that I shall do the work of a crowded day more effectively if I take time to make my heart quiet in His presence. Before t take my place where the many are coming and going, 1 must wait in silence before the One that I may carry the vision of Him with me .... So to order life that at each day's beginning there is somehow made a real space of quiet and prayer, how many have found that the secret of victorious living ? Jesus seemed always to have time for everything that needed to be done. He was calm and unhurried, even when many were coming and going around him. He seemed always to bring to each man's case a quiet and undivided heart. How can I face life in His undisturbed way ? The secret is surely this, to do each thing consciously for God. To accept each event of my busy day as being part of His will for me . . . . And the secret lies alsoi in this, as Armelle Nicolas had found, in doing just one thing at a time, in concentrating humbly and earnestly on the present moment, with its work to do, Its claim to meet, its sufferings, it may be, to bear. There are duties past, well done or ill done, and there will L>e duties to come, but just now there is this thing for me to do. And facing life so, it does come to pass that each moment though it is part of a

busy day, is also as it were environed with an air oi' space and freedom and leisure. (Francis B. James.) Oxford (I roup teaching has brought again to our remembrance the value of the quiet morning hour. With some, indeed Avith many, this season of communion with God, before the Avork of th!o day begins, is possible. But for others, another Avay miisl be found. We think of the farm Avorkers Avho commence eA r ery day about ."> a.m. and mothers of young families Avho would have to be astir bright find early to get hull an hour before tlie demands of the- family claim them. "I try," said a young mother to me, "T rise early, and go to the front room for my quiet time. Be-« fore long I am interrupted Avith a call, 'Mum, Avhat dress shall I Avear to-day V Then comes a cry from the boys' room, 'Mum, Gordon's taken one of my garters and he Avon't giA 7 e it back.' "After the last cherub is off to school," the lady continued, "I go apart and rest aAvhile Avith my Bible and a devotional book. That half-hour suits me best." Another busy mother said that she found her quiet time in the early afternoon, as soon as the dinner dishes Avere out of the Avay. Our days are sometimes so full of restless hurry, and there is so little to show for all its noise. "I lost my life laboriously doing nothing," is an epitaph that might be Avritten about some busy people. Are there not Avays and means of cutting out the non-essentials in life, that more time might be found for the things most Avorth while ? A Avise man prayed, "Forgive us the disorder, the feA r er, the A r ai.n purpose of our lives. Our eyes haA r e been fixed to earth, and rarely lifted to ilie hills. Help us iioav to bif still, to Avait for the revelation of Thy will, that Avill make us calm and strong."