Article October 11, 1947 Issue

"TO THIS END WAS I BORN"

ELIZABETH BOOTH

In spite of deep sincerity of purpose and effort, many people are uncertain of their place in life and unsure of the rightness of their action under various circumstances encountered in human experience. Some feel that the tide of events has swept them too far from their course toward a cherished career, that too many interfering events have taken plate for them ever to resume their way again. Others may feel that the work they are performing falls short of their capabilities or is insufficiently appreciated.

The desire for human approbation of one's work is not to be dismissed lightly as childish vanity or as the hunger of some lonely one for human appreciation. As long as we have a mortal, personal sense of ourselves and others we shall probably look for some outward appreciation of our work as evidence that it has met a human need, that it has had value to someone other than ourselves. Otherwise it is as though the sun were shining into space but falling upon no object to give back its light, and we see no evidence of its shining.

Christ Jesus understood that to be the man of God's creating is enough. In the Sermon on the Mount he said to his listeners. "Consider the lilies of the field, how the grow; they toil not, neither do the spin," and reminded them that "even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matt. 6:28, 29). In other words, these lilies of the field fulfill their purpose to express beauty whether or not there is anyone present to observe that beauty.

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