Today I was privileged to be able to lead our daily safety huddle at work. For those not familiar with a safety huddle, it is something that many healthcare facilities do once to three times per day to stay informed with internal and external concerns. At the start of our meeting, we always have a “prayer or reflection.” I thought today I would share what I read.

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Have you ever noticed that someone else has a joy, cheerfulness, a real power and humility that you do not have? Have you noticed that others seem to handle situations in life better than you do?

Today let us consider what F.B. Meyer (pastor and author [early 1900s]) said about himself in his book, The Christ-Life for The Self-Life.

“Sixteen years ago I was a minister in a Midland town in England, not at all happy, doing my work for the pay I got, but holding a good position amongst my fellows. Hudson Taylor (famous missionary to China) and two young students came into my life. I watched them. They had something I had not. Those young men stood there in all their strength and joy.

 

I said to Charles Studd (another well-known missionary):

 

“What is the difference between you and me? You seem so happy, and I somehow am in the trough of the wave.”

 

He replied:

 

“There is nothing that I have got which you may not have, Mr. Meyer.”

 

But I asked:

 

“How am I to get it?”

 

“Well,” he said, “have you given yourself right up to God?”

 

I winced. I knew that if it came to that, there was a point where I had been fighting my deepest convictions for months. I had lived away from it, but when I came to the Lord’s table and handed out the bread and wine, then it met me; or when I came to a convention or meeting of holy people, something stopped me as I remembered this. It was the one point where my will was entrenched. I thought I would do something with Christ that night which would settle it one way or the other, and I met Christ.

I knelt in my room and gave Christ the ring of my will with the keys on it, but kept one little key back, the key of a closet in my heart, in one back story in my heart.

He said to me:

“Are they all here?”

And I said:

“All but one.”

“What is that?” said He.

“It is the key of a little cupboard,” said I, “in which I have got something which Thou needest not interfere with, but it is mine.”

Then, as He put the keys back into my hand, and seemed to be gliding away to the door, He said:

“My child, if you cannot trust Me with all, you do not trust Me at all.”

 I cried:

“Stop!”

…and He seemed to come back; and holding the little key in my hand, in thought I said:

“I cannot give it, but if Thou wilt take it Thou shalt have it.”

He took it, and within a month from that time He had cleared out that little cupboard of things which had been there for months. I knew He would. May I add one word more? Three years ago I met the thing I gave up that night, and as I met it I could not imagine myself being such a fool as nearly to have sold my birthright for that mess of pottage.

I looked up into the face of Christ and said:

“Now I am thine.”

For if we desire to have that which we know we do not have, we can have it, but we must ask and we must surrender all. And if we will surrender all, then we too will have the peace, love, and joy of Christ. Just think how many people could be affected by the outcome.

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You can also get this quote from F.B. Meyer in Jeremy’s new book, “Stay In The Boat: When Perception Begs Our Abandonment.”