Article November 16, 1957 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from E. Stanley Jones, George M. Adams, Sam S. Langley, R. Reginald Parry

E. Stanley Jonesin TogetherChicago, Illinois

For the Christian, anxiety is so unnecessary. I have not had a blue hour of discouragement for thiry-five years. There have been moments of flitting disappointment, of course, but not for so much as an hour. My solution? When a large problem looms, I simply say: "Lord, I turn this over to you. Tell me what to do."

The secret is surrender, a willingness to forgo a selfish first choice. God's choice for us may differ from our own ambitions, but who are we to challenge it? The painter, Whistler, wanted to be a soldier; he took up the brush only when he failed at West Point. Walter Scott gave up his dream of being a poet when he could not equal Byron. Ashamed of being a novelist, he wrote anonymously—but he gave us Ivanhoe.

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