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The Reformation Herald Online Edition

The Faith of Jesus

Living for the Earth Made New
T. Stockler
Living for the Earth Made New

The attitude we assume, the state of our feelings and temper under irritation, all the individual peculiarities of our disposition and personal manners and habits, are determining our destiny.”1

An older lady used to live a few doors down from my house. It seems she had had a serious automobile accident near our homes. One of her legs was injured, leaving it a couple of inches shorter than her other leg. Sometime after the accident, she went for a follow-up surgery to attempt to lengthen her short leg. After the anesthesia wore off, this lady woke up to the fact that doctors can sometimes make mistakes. The surgeon had lengthened the wrong leg!

A 2012 study by John Hopkins University suggests that across the United States as many as 20 surgeries each week are performed on the opposite side of the body from where the surgery should have taken place.

I would like to ask any surgeon who makes such a mistake several questions. One of them is the question, “What does it feel like while you are making a mistake?” We all know what it feels like after you realize that you have made a mistake. But what does it feel like before you realize it is a mistake? Does the surgeon feel good about being able to do the surgery? Does he or she have the satisfaction of a job well done at the end? We generally don’t feel something is wrong while we are making a mistake. We feel just fine.

That is exactly the danger for each one of us. We sin and think we are doing just what is right. We are hurtful to others and feel like we are kind. Our problem is that we cannot rely on any sense of feeling to tell us when we are wrong.

The surgeon that makes a mistake may have performed thousands of surgeries correctly beforehand. I am not suggesting that such a surgeon has never done well. In fact, the particular surgeon mentioned above may have done very well. Any human is capable of making a mistake. But we do not want a surgeon whose average is high. We do not want to risk being cut open by someone who operates on the correct body part 95% of the time. We need consistent quality, not just a high average.

Just because we do wrong sometimes does not mean that we are nothing but evil. Many times selfish and mean people accomplish some wonderful feats. The cruelest people can show kindness sometimes. But peace does not exist when we have a high average behavior. The world is not safe if we are cruel only 5% of the time. The point is not what your and my average behavior is. Like a surgeon, we need consistent quality. We should never do wrong. We need to learn how to avoid “mistakes.” We need to be free from evil.

There are ways to help surgeons never cut the incorrect body part. Suggestions include marking the arm or leg to be operated while the patient is still awake and alert. And discussing the surgery between the patient and the doctor before starting surgery to make sure the doctor and the patient have the same expectation of which place the operation will occur.

But here our analogy breaks down. We cannot simply provide a few easy tips to keep us as saints.

“There is much for each to unlearn with respect to himself, as well as much to learn. Old habits and customs must be shaken off, and it is only by earnest struggles to correct these errors, and a full reception of the truth in carrying out its principles, by the grace of God, that the victory can be gained.”2

A challenge for each of us

Too easily we see the old habits and customs that others must “shake off.” But we cannot see all of our own faults unless God Himself shows them to us. As the moment approached for Jesus to return to Heaven, He told His disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:7, 8). It is the work of the Holy Spirit to convince or “reprove” me of sin. I cannot do it for myself. We should pray for the Holy Spirit to show us where we are wrong and to change us. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23, 24). “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” (Psalm 19:12, 13).

As Jesus neared the end of His earthly ministry, He focused many of His lessons on personal responsibility. In these parables, Jesus teaches us that we will exhibit the same kind of responsibility and integrity in great world changing projects as we do in quiet unnoticed ones. We are as likely to make a good national leader as we are a good private person. We are competent to govern ten cities when we can govern our own temper.

Just here is the greatest challenge for each one of us. Most of us have dreamed of being rich, or powerful, or influential, or popular. Satan teaches that each one of these qualities is more important than character. Jesus teaches that honesty is more important than riches, teachability than power, humility than influence and popularity. Those who run a department well can learn to run the whole company well. Those that don’t manage well the little bit of life that is given to them will lose the responsibility that they have.

We should not trust ourselves if we are not faithful in managing our own life. We should not trust others who are careless in the important details of their life. We should not trust a surgeon who is not careful enough to determine accurately where to perform the surgery. If they don’t even care what our name is, why would they care how our surgery will turn out?

Don’t underestimate the smaller details!

“ ‘He that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much’ (Luke 16:10). By unfaithfulness in even the smallest duties, man robs his Maker of the service which is His due. This unfaithfulness reacts upon himself. He fails of gaining the grace, the power, the force of character, which may be received through an unreserved surrender to God. Living apart from Christ he is subject to Satan’s temptations, and he makes mistakes in his work for the Master. Because he is not guided by right principles in little things, he fails to obey God in the great matters which he regards as his special work. The defects cherished in dealing with life’s minor details pass into more important affairs. He acts on the principles to which he has accustomed himself. Thus actions repeated form habits, habits form character, and by the character our destiny for time and for eternity is decided.

“Only by faithfulness in the little things can the soul be trained to act with fidelity under larger responsibilities. . . .

“[God] calls us to be His witnesses in the world today. In the smallest as well as the largest affairs of life He desires us to reveal to men the principles of His kingdom.

“Christ in His life on earth taught the lesson of careful attention to the little things. The great work of redemption weighed continually upon His soul. As He was teaching and healing, all the energies of mind and body were taxed to the utmost; yet He noticed the most simple things in life and in nature. His most instructive lessons were those in which by the simple things of nature He illustrated the great truths of the kingdom of God. He did not overlook the necessities of the humblest of His servants. His ear heard every cry of need. He was awake to the touch of the afflicted woman in the crowd; the very slightest touch of faith brought a response. When He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, He reminded her parents that she must have something to eat. When by His own mighty power He rose from the tomb, He did not disdain to fold and put carefully in the proper place the grave clothes in which He had been laid away.

“The work to which as Christians we are called is to cooperate with Christ for the salvation of souls. This work we have entered into covenant with Him to do. To neglect the work is to prove disloyal to Christ. But in order to accomplish this work we must follow His example of faithful, conscientious attention to the little things. This is the secret of success in every line of Christian effort and influence.”3

The secret of ultimate success

“Success in the work of God is not the result of chance, of accident, or of destiny; it is the outworking of God’s providence, and the award of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering labor.”4

The only way that any of us will live in the new earth in the future is if we make Jesus and living like He did our highest goal in life. If we have any goal more important to us, we are rejecting Jesus and choosing our goal over Him. God help us to trust Him here and live consistently like we mean to live in the new earth.

References
1 Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, p. 92.
2 Testimonies, vol. 4, pp. 485, 486.
3 Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 356-358.
4 The Review and Herald, April 4, 1912.