December 9, 2022Dear friends,
If you live in the Montreal area and were outside early this morning, you might have seen the full moon in the clear sky – a beautiful reminder of God’s faithfulness in caring for His creation. In recent months, we have looked at nine Biblical patterns for a lifetime of purpose as presented by Robert J. Morgan in his book “Mastering Life Before It’s Too Late.” The tenth (and final) pattern is “Remember There Are Two of You.” Morgan writes: “In 1961, an executive in Amsterdam named Thomas van Beek recruited a capable assistant to help him master and manage his work … Even when van Beek and his colleagues drooped from exhaustion at the end of long days, Miss Neef seemed indefatigable. She was a one-woman miracle, and for twelve years she managed the office with machine-like efficiency.
Finally the dreaded day came when Miss Neef turned in her notice. She was ready to retire, and no one could dissuade her. It wasn’t a matter of long hours or low pay; she simply longed for the next chapter in her life. With reluctance, Mr. van Beek planned a retirement party for this remarkable woman who had invested years doing the work of two people without complaining.
That’s when the surprise came out. To the wonderment of all, Miss Neef arrived at the party with another person – another Miss Neef! For a dozen years, two sisters, identical twins, had been sharing the same job, each working half-time, rotating in and out according to their own covert schedule and splitting the paycheck between them. As coworkers did a double take, the Misses Neef smiled at the success of their charade, having double-teamed their colleagues for over a decade.”
Morgan then relates a conversation that took place between two well-known servants of the Lord: missionary and explorer David Livingstone and British preacher and author Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was “famous for the unbelievable quantity of his work – preaching multiple times to vast crowds every week, pastoring the largest church in London, producing books and magazines faster than anyone could read them, and heading up dozens of charitable and humanitarian organizations. Livingstone asked him, ‘How do you manage to do two men’s work in a single day?’
Spurgeon had a simple reply: ‘You have forgotten that there are two of us.’ He went on to explain that he had an unseen Partner, and this Partner was doing most of the work.”
Morgan concludes: “Jesus Christ lives within His followers through the divine agency of the Holy Spirit. He replicates His qualities through our personalities and accomplishes His purposes through our efforts. We truly master life only when we recognize Jesus Christ as the Unseen Senior Partner in all our pursuits. Whatever our assignment, profession, status, or station in life, it’s not a matter of what we’re doing for Christ but what He does through us. This is the one and only means to perpetual and pleasant productivity.”
May the Lord have full control of all that we do, to His honour and praise!
Scripture for the weekend: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NKJV)
Thought for the weekend: “When I met Christ, I felt that I had swallowed sunshine.” – Missionary E. Stanley Jones