As always, Jesse speaks cogently to a confusing time.
"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has
committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have
my mission -- I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in
the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.
I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a
preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but
keep His commandments.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my
perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may
make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me --
still He knows what He is about.
We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it
were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to
follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes
place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not
believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case.
Let us feel what we really are--sinners attempting great things. Let us
simply obey God's will, whatever may come. He can turn all things to our
eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show
us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no
morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and
forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.
May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and
the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life
is over, and our work is done.
Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.”
John Henry Newman
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