To Say Yes

Excerpt from Devotional Classics

1. To Say Yes

I am the ves­sel. The draught is God’s. And God is the thirsty one.

* * *

In the last analy­sis, what does the word ​“sac­ri­fice” mean? Or even the word ​“gift”? He who has noth­ing can give noth­ing. The gift is God’s to God.

* * *

To be free, to be able to stand up and leave every­thing behind with­out look­ing back. To say Yes—

* * *

To say Yes to life is at one and the same time to say Yes to oneself.

Yes — even to that ele­ment in one which is most unwill­ing to let itself be trans­formed from a temp­ta­tion into a strength.

2. Firmer, Sim­pler, Quieter

A land­scape can sing about God, a body about Spirit.

* * *

Matu­ri­ty: among oth­er things, the uncloud­ed hap­pi­ness of the child at play, who takes it for grant­ed that he is at one with his playmates.

* * *

If only I may grow: firmer, sim­pler, qui­eter, warmer.

* * *

Your life is with­out a foun­da­tion if, in any mat­ter, you choose on your own behalf.

* * *

Before Thee, Father, In right­eous­ness and humil­i­ty, With Thee, Broth­er, In faith and courage, In Thee, Spir­it, In stillness.

* * *

Thine—for Thy will is my destiny, 

Ded­i­cat­ed—for my des­tiny is to be used and used up accord­ing to Thy will.

3. Let­ting the Task Rest Light­ly in Your Hand

Thanks to your ​“suc­cess,” you now have some­thing to lose. Because of this as if sud­den­ly aware of the risks — you ask whether you, or any­one, can ​“suc­ceed.” If you go on in this way, thought­less­ly mir­ror­ing your­self in an obit­u­ary, you will soon be writ­ing your epi­taph — in two senses.

* * *

Do what you can — and the task will rest light­ly in your hand, so light­ly that you will be able to look for­ward to the more dif­fi­cult tests which may be await­ing you.

* * *

When the morn­ing’s fresh­ness has been replaced by the weari­ness of mid­day, when the leg mus­cles quiver under the strain, the climb seems end­less, and, sud­den­ly, noth­ing will go quite as you wish — it is then that you must not hesitate.

* * *

For­give­ness is the answer to the child’s dream of a mir­a­cle by which what is bro­ken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean. The dream explains why we need to be for­giv­en, and why we must for­give. In the pres­ence of God, noth­ing stands between Him and us — we are for­giv­en. But we can­not feel His pres­ence if any­thing is allowed to stand between our­selves and others.

4. Temp­ta­tion, Agony, and Stillness

—Lead us not into temp­ta­tion,
But deliv­er us from evil:
Let all that is in me serve Thee,
And thus free me from all fear.

* * *

There are actions — jus­ti­fied only by faith — which can lift us into anoth­er sphere, where the bat­tle is with ​“Prin­ci­pal­i­ties, Domin­ions and Pow­ers.” Actions upon which — out of mer­cy every­thing is staked.

“For Thy holy life is our way, and your adorable patience the road by which we must approach Thee.”

* * *

The third hour. And the ninth. — They are here. And now. They are now!

“Jesus will be in agony even to the end of the world. We must not sleep dur­ing that time.” (Pas­cal)

We must not — And for the watch­er is the far-off present — also present in his con­tact with mankind among whom, at every moment, Jesus dies in some­one who has fol­lowed the trail marks of the inner road to the end:

love and patience,
right­eous­ness and humil­i­ty,
faith and courage,
Still­ness.

* * *

Under­stand — through the stillness,

Act — out of the still­ness,
Con­quer — in the still­ness.
​“In order for the eye to per­ceive col­or, it must divest itself of all colors.”

5. God Finds a Use for Our Efforts

What next? Why ask? Next will come a demand about which you already know all you need to know: that is the sole mea­sure of your own strength.

* * *

Hal­lowed be Thy name,
 not mine, 
Thy king­dom come,
 not mine,
Thy will be done,
 not mine,
Give us peace with Thee
 Peace with men 
 Peace with our­selves,
And free us from all fear.

* * *

Your own efforts did not bring it to pass, only God — but rejoice if God found a use for your efforts in His work.

Rejoice if you feel that what you did was ​“nec­es­sary” but remem­ber, even so, that you were sim­ply the instru­ment by means of which He added one tiny grain to the Uni­verse He has cre­at­ed for His own purposes.

* * *

Be grate­ful as your deeds become less and less asso­ci­at­ed with your name, as your feet ever more light­ly tread the earth.

BIBLE SELEC­TION: Eccle­si­astes 12:9 – 14

Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the peo­ple knowl­edge, weigh­ing and study­ing and arrang­ing many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleas­ing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.

The say­ings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firm­ly fixed are the col­lect­ed say­ings that are giv­en by one shep­herd. Of any­thing beyond these, my child, beware. Of mak­ing many books there is no end, and much study is a weari­ness of the flesh.

The end of the mat­ter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his com­mand­ments; for that is the whole duty of every­one. For God will bring every deed into judg­ment, includ­ing every secret thing, whether good or evil.

REFLEC­TION QUESTIONS

The fol­low­ing ques­tions can be used for dis­cus­sion with a small group, or used for jour­nal reflec­tions by individuals.

1. How do you under­stand the author’s state­ment, ​“I am the ves­sel. The draught is God’s. And God is the thirsty one”?

2. Read over sec­tion 2. Which ​“mark­ings” stand out to you? Why?

3. In sec­tion 3, in the final mark­ing, the author writes about the impor­tance of for­giv­ing oth­ers. Why is this so crucial?

4. The author sees very clear­ly that God inter­acts with our actions and uses them for his pur­pos­es. Describe a time when you felt that God was real­ly using your efforts for some good.

5. The ​“Teacher” in Eccle­si­astes used Proverbs in order to teach. The ​“mark­ings” we have been read­ing could also be called proverbs. Why is this such an effec­tive way of teaching?

SUG­GEST­ED EXERCISES

The fol­low­ing exer­cis­es can be done by indi­vid­u­als, shared between spir­i­tu­al friends, or used in the con­text of a small group. Choose one or more of the following.

1. Try writ­ing some of your own ​“mark­ings” this week. Reflect on your life and your strug­gles, and what God is teach­ing you, and put them in short, almost poet­ic sentences.

2. Take one of the mark­ings and com­mit it to mem­o­ry. Make note of how often you see its wis­dom come into play dur­ing the next week.

3. Ham­marskjöld saw his life as an expres­sion of work­ing with and for God. Before you begin each day this week, con­sid­er the tasks that are at hand. Take them light­ly, one at a time, and with a sense that God is with you.

4. Read Eccle­si­astes this week. It is a book filled with sol­id wis­dom. Read a chap­ter or two a night before falling to sleep, and read it once again before your day begins. Reflect on how the expe­ri­ence shapes your day.

REFLEC­TIONS

Ham­marskjöld moves me end­less­ly. For thir­ty-six years this pub­lic ser­vant kept a pri­vate record of the inti­mate, intri­cate, and some­times tor­tured path of ​“God’s mar­riage to the soul.” Through­out those years no oth­er per­son had seen a page of this writ­ing indeed, no one had even been aware of its exis­tence until after his death.

On the title page he wrote the sin­gle Swedish word, ​“Väg­märken,” a moun­tain term refer­ring to the small piles of stones a hik­er would erect to mark the way when the trail is faint or nonex­is­tent. I am quite famil­iar with these ​“väg­märken,” or cairns, to use the Eng­lish term. At times I have des­per­ate­ly searched a moun­tain­ous land­scape for such mark­ers, know­ing that find­ing them is life indeed, and that miss­ing them can be dan­ger­ous, even fatal. What a relief to find the next ​“väg­märken” for it sig­nals two things: one, I am head­ing in the right direc­tion, and, two, I am get­ting clos­er to my goal. Dag Ham­marskjöld’s Mark­ings give us exact­ly this kind of guid­ance for life.

—Richard J. Foster