| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 14 |
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But we should never chafe – chafing spoils our lives. It is ingratitude to God. We should accept our circumstances in life, our condition, our providential environment, with love and trust, in the spirit of contentment. We are not, however, indolently to accept our limitations, as if God wants us to stay there for ever, and make no effort to get into larger conditions. Usually we are to be led out of them at length, into a larger place, if we do our part and are faithful. Contentment with our lot is a religious duty, and yet we are never to fret about our small chance, not trying to better our condition, and blame God for it, complaining that if we had had the larger opportunity which somebody else had, we would make something worth while of our life.
God does not want us to be contented with insignificance, if we are able to hew our way out to better things. Ofttimes narrowness of this kind is really a splendid opportunity, rather than an invincible hindrance. God puts us into a small place at the beginning, that in the very narrowness we may get impulse and inspiration for larger things, and in the effort and struggle grow strong. A young medical student was speaking of the hampered early beginnings – poverty, necessity for hard work, and sore struggle to get an education. A friend said, “Do you know that these very experiences were God’s way of blessing you? He gave you the narrow circumstances that you might make the effort to grow. If you had had money, easy conditions, and affluent circumstances, you never would have been where you are today – about to enter an honoured profession.”
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