| The Secrets of a Beautiful Life |
Chapter 10 |
Page 4 |
We cannot bear now the revealing of our own future. Christ knows it all. When a young Christian come to the Master’s feet and says, “I will follow thee whithersoever thou leadest,” the Master knows what that promise means. But he does not reveal the knowledge to his happy disciple. People sometimes say they wish they could look on into the years and see all that will come to them. But would this be a blessing? Would it make them happier? Could they shape their course better if they knew all that shall befall them, — the struggles, the victories, the defeats, the joys and sorrow, the failures of bright hopes, — just how long they will live?
Surely it is better we should not know our future. So the word of the Master is continually: “I have yet many things to say onto you but ye cannot bear them now.” Only as we go on, step by step, does he disclose to us his will and plan for our life. Thus the joys of life do not dazzle us, for our hearts have been chastened so that we have learned how to receive them. The sorrows do not overwhelm us, because each one brings its own special comfort with it. But if we had known in advance the coming joys and prosperities, the exultation might have made us heedless of duty and of danger. We might have let go God’s hand and have grown self-confident, thus missing the benediction that comes only to simple, trusting faith. If we had known of the struggles and trials before us, we might have become disheartened, thus failing of courage to endure. In either case we could not have borne the revealing, and it was in tenderness that the Master withheld it.
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