A meditation by Rev. Tom Keyte

I once knew a man who had been ordered by his doctor
to take up golf for the sake of his health. He had never been
very interested in sports of any kind, and the doctor thought
that, apart from the benefit of the exercise, it would take him
out of himself and relax some of the tensions in his life.

Dutifully he followed the little white ball around
the course, but his heart was never in it. The game became simply
another burden to be carried, so he gave it up.

Compare his case with that of the man who used to
cut my hair. He was a fanatic. He talked about little else but
golf. His latest game would be described down to the last stroke,
and it was not unknown for him to take time off from the business
in hand to demonstrate shots with a broom. He was an enthusiast.

I suppose we all veer to one or the other of these
extremes in our attitudes to work in particular, and to life generally.
Of course, in these days not everyone has a job, but if you do,
do you enjoy your work? Or is it only something you do to keep
the wolf from the door, so that you look forward eagerly each
day to the time when you will be free from it for some hours to
get on with what really interests you? And life generally? Has
it got you down, so that it is reduced to a dull round of duties
and burdens, with a drudgery the dominant note in it all? Or do
you go about it with zest and relish?

No irksome burden

In Psalm 119 the writer says, `Your statutes have
been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.’ I believe that he
meant not merely that the laws of God inspired his song, but that
they themselves WERE his song. The great obligations resulting
from his faith in God were not an irksome burden to him because
they had been set to music.

Are you saying, `That’s all very well: if you had
my job, or lived in my home, you would not talk like that?’ Do
you remember what Jesus said about taking up his yoke and finding
rest to your soul? A yoke is not a way of getting out from under
a burden or responsibility; it is a way of carrying it in a better
manner so that it does not chafe and rub your spirit raw. It is
also a way of sharing the burden with him. He knew all about the
harder side of life in home and business. He worked hard to suppport
a widowed mother and a large family. He experienced the difficulties
of business life, of unreasonable customers and people who would
not pay up. All of that, together with what he did in his public
ministry later, was part of what God had given him to do, and
he did it with a zest and buoyancy of spirit that took all the
drudgery out of it.

His secret was that when you face an unpleasant talk
or a duty which cannot be readily avoided, instead of doing it
grudgingly or reluctantly, you do a little extra, a little more
than you are compelled to do, for the sheer gladness of it. That
was his principle of going the second mile, when you are compelled
to go the first, not with a self-righteous air, but out of sheer
goodwill.

His experience was that such an attitude takes some
of the sting out of life’s inevitabilities. That was one of the
secrets of the richness of his own living, which he promised to
teach those who share his yoke.

Shalom! Rowland Croucher