A Spiritual Call For Renewal. . .

A SAMPLE OF OUR BEST

Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.—Luke 21:34

Oliver Wendell Holmes, son of the poet of the same name, served both as chief justice of Massachusetts Supreme Court and associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. When his fellow jurists were honoring him at a dinner, he took the occasion to reflect upon half lifetime as a judge. He referred to the docket that he kept as a kind of judicial diary of all his cases, a thousand of them in all, and concluded that many of them were trifling and transitory in nature. Then he said:

“Alas, gentlemen, that is life. We cannot live our dreams. We are lucky enough if we can give a sample of our best, and if in our hearts we can feel that is has been nobly done.”

There is something about that story that leaves one with a sense of frustration. If one attains the eminence of a supreme court jurist and still finds much of what he does only trifling, then what hope is there for us lesser lights for finding life significant. And yet the judge gives the believer an important truth to ponder. We cannot live our dreams. We do well when we can give life a sample of our best.

So it is with this little journal we send forth. Once I may have had dreams of an important publication, meaning I suppose a large circulation and a great influence. I don’t recall such visions, but they would have been natural. Even when such dreams are realized there is a question as to how much good is really accomplished, Oliver Wendell Holmes himself being judge. I have long since resigned myself to the quiet hope of doing some little good in this world. The Master’s words provide that hope: “He who is righteous in a little is righteous also in much.” As Namaan learned from a maiden so God’s little people have taught me not to think in terms of great accomplishments, but to look to God in the hope that He will use me in some humble way to realize His purposes in this world.

I think of David’s desire: “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” And David had been around enough to know of the pleasures of “the tents of wickedness.” A doorkeeper, only a doorkeeper. And in his time David had tasted the power of a conquering king.

Then there is that woman who anointed Jesus with costly ointment. While others criticized her for the waste, the Lord said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” How many there might be who now listen to the angels sing, who in this world were either ignored or criticized. What is inconsequential to man may be viewed as beautiful to God. Jesus said of this woman: “She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying.” It is not likely that she realized that her act had such significance as preparing the body of God’s Messiah for burial. She was simply doing what she could with what she had. It was a sample of her best, and God used it to His glory.

A similar incident is when Jesus and his disciples were to eat the Passover together, and his disciples pointed out that there was no place to do it. It must have been prearranged by the Lord, for he instructed them to go into the city where they would see a man carrying a jar of water, something the women always did, and follow him into the house he enters. There they were to tell the householder, “The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I am to eat the passover with my disciples?” Then they would be shown a large upper room appropriately furnished for the occasion.

The story goes to the very heart of what it means to believe in Jesus. The man gave the best he had to the One in whom he placed his trust, and yet that person was a hunted criminal in the eyes of the authorities. He was risking his own life in order for Jesus to have a party.

That old Dutchman, William the Silent, who was assassinated even though he never said much, epitomized his life with a statement that points up what we are saying: “It is not necessary to hope in order to act, or to succeed in order to persevere.”

Ah, what wisdom is in those words!

As in the case of the man who arranged for the Lord’s secret party in his upper room, he did not stop to ask if he might get caught while harboring a criminal. In faith one acts even when there is no assurance that all will turn out well. And if our religion is valid it teaches us to persevere even in the face of apparent failure.

It must be so with us who labor as peacemakers to bring new dimensions of fellowship and brotherhood to a fractured people. Success? Despite all the happy signs even now, it may well be that the success in our generation will be very limited. Still we must persevere. It demands a sample of our best.

The story of the poor widow is especially to the point. Her gifts to the temple treasury were totally insignificant, being worth far less than one cent of our money. She too was insignificant, and it is likely that her presence was as much ignored as her gift, especially in the presence of the rich, who were also making their gifts. But Jesus noticed her, and it is noteworthy that He discerned that she was a widow. And what a declaration he made of her gift! “She has put in more than all of them,” He said. Jesus said that about a gift worth less than a penny!

It is an important lesson in values, for it shows that the real is on the inside, in the heart, and works its way out. The Lord makes it clear while her gift counted more (to Him that is) than the gifts of the rich. “They all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.” He knew nor only that she was a widow but that she had also given all that she had.

The big difference between the widow and the rich in what they gave is that to the widow it was something important, while to the rich it was something to be done as a matter of course. And that is the big difference today between the real believer and the nominal church member. To one Jesus is significant and important. He means everything. But to the other He is nothing to get excited about. Religion may be all right in its place, but there is no sense in becoming very involved.

The reason so many of us give no more than we do, pray no more than we do, and work no harder than we do is that we do not see these things as particularly important. We are ready to give our best to that which has won our mind and heart.

Renewal comes through recovery, and recovery through renewal. That has been our theme this year. It will help us to move in this direction if we can learn to go beyond our dreams and to accept conditions as we find them, and then look to God for those opportunities in which we can give at least a sample of our best in building a better world and a more spiritual brotherhood.

The widow in the temple, the woman who anointed Jesus, the man who prepared the upper room, all these had the common trait of being insignificant and unimportant people, and yet God used them to the glory of the Messiah. He has a way of making foolish the wisdom of the wise, and of making rich the poverty of the poor. With Justice Holmes we may agree that much of life seems trifling and unimportant, but those of us who trust in Jesus will give ourselves to be used of God even in inconsequential ways. What appears trifling to the world may be momentous to God.

A sample of one’s best may be but a farthing, a flash of ointment, or an upper room made ready. But it should be of great comfort to us that our Lord spoke of such humble gifts with superlatives. “She has given more than them all,” and “She has done something beautiful for me,” was his language.

What a blessed anticipation it is that our blessed Lord will one day say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” That will be our glory!

He who will say that is the One who sees as important what others see as unimportant. Jesus is sensitive even to a farthing, a word, a touch, a cup of water, a broken heart.

He is ready to receive a sample of the best we have.—the Editor

 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.—Edmund Burke