The Happiest People!
Brief Bible Course for Teens and Youth.
Lesson 10. Eat Thy Bread With Joy!
Printable pdf:
Audio A // Audio B
"Live joyfully with the wife whom thou
lovest . . . , and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave,
whither thou goest." Ecclesiastes 9:9, 10.
A number of years ago a man came to see
Dr. Henry Link, a very famous doctor in New York. He was despondent
and discouraged. He had lost his job, nobody cared to associate with
him, and even his own family did not seem to want him any more. The
only thing he could think of doing was to commit suicide. He thought
first he would see what the doctor would advise, so he told him all
his troubles. Dr. Link said, "Your work has been very sedentary. You
have developed your mind but not your body. I will give you a
program of manual work, and soon you will be feeling better."
The man replied: "I don't like manual
work; I don't want to work."
Dr. Link replied, "If you don't get that
body to work, you will soon lose your mind." He did his best to
dissuade him from committing suicide, but all the man would say was,
"I don't want to work; I want to commit suicide."
At last almost in exasperation the doctor
said, "All right, then, commit suicide, but don't blow your brains
out, or hang yourself, or jump over a bridge; do something out of
the ordinary. If you could not get into the headlines of the
newspaper while you were alive, do something heroic and commit
suicide in a he-man way and get into the headlines when you die."
The man said, "That sounds interesting.
What do you have to suggest?"
The doctor said: "I never yet have heard
of man running himself to death. If you want to get into the
headlines, run around the block until you drop dead, and every
newspaper will have it on the front page."
The poor despondent man said, "That is
what I am going to do."
He went home, wrote a letter of farewell,
dressed in his bathing suit, and started running; and he ran and
ran, but he could not drop dead. He got so tired that he could
hardly lift one foot after another, and at last he said, "I will
have to finish this off tomorrow night." He went back home, and he
slept better than he had slept for a long time.
The next night he began running around
the block, and round and round he went. But he couldn't drop dead.
He got so tired he couldn't move another inch, and so he went back
to bed and slept, and the next morning he was as hungry as a horse.
The next night when he was getting ready to run, he said, "I feel
better than I have felt for a long while. I don't think I am ever
going to drop dead." And that man literally ran himself back again
to life, health and strength.
When God made man in the beginning He
gave him work to do. (Genesis 2:15.) This work was intended to be a
great blessing and a source of great happiness. God planned that man
should eat his bread with joy (Ecclesiastes 9:7), and Solomon tells
us how this joy can come to us: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy might" (verse 10).
Unfortunately, when Adam disobeyed God in
the Garden of Eden, he was cursed, and part of that curse had the
word "work" in it. When Adam was condemned to earn his bread by the
sweat of his brow, Satan took advantage of the situation, and ever
since he has tried to tell mankind that work is a curse. But work is
one of the greatest blessings that has ever come to mankind. There
is a mysterious power in work that all the science of human beings
cannot explain. It has power akin to the power of God.
"Blessed is every one that feareth the
Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of
thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee,"
says David. Psalm 128:1, 2.
Paul tells us to "work out" our "own
salvation with fear and trembling." Philippians. 2:12.
Jesus says, "Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16.
And in the Day of Judgment we will be
judged according to our works. (Revelation 22:12.) How will it feel
to hear the judge of all saying, "I know thy works, and thy labour,
and thy patience"? Revelations 2:2.
"Those who, so far as it is possible,
engage in the work of doing good to others by giving practical
demonstration of their interest in them, are not only relieving the
ills of human life in helping them bear their burdens, but are at
the same time contributing largely to their own health of soul and
body. Doing good is a work that benefits both giver and receiver. If
you forget self in your interest for others, you gain a victory over
your infirmities. The satisfaction you will realize in doing good,
will aid you greatly in the recovery of the healthy tone of the
imagination." Messages to Young People, p. 209.
What a wonderful blessing! When we engage
in doing good to others, the physical part of the work first does
our own bodies good, second it blesses those whom we help, and third
it brings health to our minds!
"The pleasure of doing good animates the
mind and vibrates through the whole body. While the faces of
benevolent men are lighted up with cheerfulness, and their
countenances express the moral elevation of the mind, those of
selfish, stingy men are dejected, cast down, and gloomy. Their moral
defects are seen in their countenances. Selfishness and self-love
stamp their own image upon the outward man." Messages to Young
People, 209.
Manual work has therefore a great deal to
do with making the face beautiful and the personality attractive.
Focus your work selflessly upon others, and the pleasure of doing
good will vibrate through your body and leave its stamp upon your
face.
"In order for men and women to have
well-balanced minds, all the powers of the being should be called
into use and developed. There are in this world many who are
one-sided because only one set of faculties has been cultivated,
while others are dwarfed from inaction. The education of many youth
is a failure. They over-study, while they neglect that which
pertains to the practical life. That the balance of the mind may be
maintained, a judicious system of physical work should be combined
with mental work, that there may be a harmonious development of all
the powers." Messages to Young People, p. 239.
Within recent years Dr. Henry C. Link has
written a book called The Rediscovery of Man. In this book he proves
scientifically this same truth given to us in the Spirit of prophecy
years ago, that man has a body, a mind, and a soul, and that all
these powers must be developed harmoniously in order to be truly
healthy.
Work bestows still another blessing: "It
was God's purpose to alleviate by toil the evil brought into the
world by man's disobedience. By toil the temptations of Satan might
be made ineffectual, and the tide of evil stayed. And though
attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, labor is still a source
of happiness and development, and a safeguard against temptation.
Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promotes
industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God's
great plan for our recovery from the fall....
"One of the surest safeguards against
evil is useful occupation, while idleness is one of the greatest
curses; for vice, crime, and poverty follow in its wake. Those who
are always busy, who go cheerfully about their daily tasks, are the
useful members of society. In the faithful discharge of the various
duties that lie in their pathway, they make their lives a blessing
to themselves and to others. Diligent labor keeps them from many of
the snares of him who `finds some mischief still for idle hands to
do.'" Messages to Young People, pp. 213, 214.
The reason why work is such a safeguard
against evil is given us in this paragraph: "The will goes with the
labor of the hands; and when the will power is dormant, the
imagination becomes abnormal, so that it is impossible for the
sufferer to resist disease. Inactivity is the greatest curse that
could come upon one in such a condition." Counsels on Health, p.
199.
To these paragraphs let me add just a few
more sentences: "For the disheartened there is a sure remedy, faith,
prayer, work." Prophets and Kings, p. 164.
"There is but one genuine cure for
spiritual laziness, and that is work--working for souls who need
your help." Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 236.
"This is the recipe that Christ has
prescribed for the fainthearted, doubting, trembling soul. Let the
sorrowful ones, who walk mournfully before the Lord, arise and help
someone who needs help." Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 266. We might read
more and more, for the Spirit of prophecy is full of the doctrine of
the twofold blessing that comes with manual labor and working for
others.
Link's book, which I have already
mentioned, is a glorification of work and of the self-discipline
that comes with work. It is a terrible indictment of everything that
is soft, easy, idle, indolent, and selfish. I recommend it for
careful reading. He says that in a search for a "personality
quotient" eighty psychologists, . . went to certain of our high
schools representing a fair cross section of our country. They
selected the students who had pleasing personalities, those who were
loved, respected, and wanted, and placed them in one group. Then
they chose those who had poor personalities, those who were
disgruntled, who were misfits, and were not respected or wanted and
put them in another group. They then studied the activities, the
pastimes, the games, the hobbies, of each group in an attempt to
find the common denominator of activities that produced good
personalities, and those that produced poor personalities. The
results were very enlightening.
Those who had pleasing personalities were
those who engaged in active games, such as swimming, basketball,
baseball, skating, ping-pong, etc. Please notice he said swimming
and not sun-bathing on the beach. He said canoeing and rowing, not
sitting idly in a motorboat. Those who had pleasing personalities
were people who enjoyed group activities, such as the Boy Scout and
the Missionary Volunteers and took part in school and Sunday school
programs, in student organizations, in bands, orchestras, and glee
clubs, and who enjoyed hobbies, such as photography, playing musical
instruments, repairing radios, keeping scrapbooks, making models, or
observing nature. His findings show that repairing radios has a
positive effect on personality and that merely listening to the
radio was negative. These people who had these pleasing
personalities kept a diary, not merely started a diary. They were
people who served on committees, who remembered birthdays, who
performed chores to earn money. The common denominators found were
action, cooperation, submitting oneself to the rules of the game
without grumbling and growling or trying to change the game because
it did not suit them. Those were some of the positive things, and
all the people with the pleasing personalities had the common
denominator of movement and exercising their physical bodies.
As they studied the other group the
common denominators were just as easily found. They were young
people who spent a lot of time reading love stories and listening to
the radio. They got out of as much participation in school programs
as possible. They enjoyed only the soft, the easy, and the pleasant
pursuits. They were self-centered and self-indulgent. Most of them
had bad habits, such as gambling, drinking, and secret vice. I want
you to notice that the common denominator of these negative factors
is passive inactivity, idleness, and sitting alone.
"Therefore," Dr. Link says, "I define
personality as the extent to which the individual has developed
habits and skills which interest and serve other people. . . . Its
emphasis is on doing things with and for other people. Its essence
is self-sacrifice, not self-gratification." The Rediscovery of Man,
pp. 60, 61.
"Persisting in games and sports even
though awkward Doing the less pleasant task first Not using the
words 'I can't do this', or 'I am no good at this' The habit of
controlling outbursts of temper. Finishing a task once started.
Refusing to be discouraged. Not brooding over mistakes and hard
luck. Having some definite vocational or educational plan....
"Self-determination as contrasted with
self-gratification, self-discipline as contrasted with
self-indulgence, is the basic law in the development of
personality." The Rediscovery of Man, pp. 81, 82.
To illustrate how these principles
produce joy or sorrow, mental health or mental sickness, Dr. Link
gave this example: A well-educated woman, sixty years of age, had
worked in a certain bank for years. She was honored, respected, and
wanted, but as the years rolled by she seemed to grow despondent and
could hardly rise above it. She went to see a doctor, and he said:
"You are in a rut. Just run away from your work for a while. Go to
New York and take in the theaters and night clubs, then come back."
She did as he advised and came back a new
woman. She felt so different. She had gotten out of the rut, but in
just a day or two she had that feeling of melancholy she had before.
She returned to the doctor and said, "It only worked for a day or
two."
He replied, "You didn't do it long
enough. Spend a whole month."
She followed his advice, but still she
felt better for only a few days when she returned. Then she heard of
Dr. Link and asked him what to do. She told him, "I can run away
from my work, but cannot run away from myself, and it doesn't do any
good."
Asking her about her work, he said, "Who
is the young lady who works beside you in the bank?"
She replied, "Dorothy."
"Dorothy what?"
"I don't know."
"Where does she live?"
"I haven't the faintest idea."
"What is she trying to accomplish?"
"I don't know."
Then Dr. Link said, "I can give you a
little prescription of things to do. Will you promise to do what I
ask you to do?"
She said, "I will do anything."
He said, "Assignment No. 1. Get
acquainted with Dorothy; find out where she lives; invite her to
your home to have supper. It may be that a woman of your ability can
do something for her. Find out all you can and do something to help
her.
Assignment No. 2: Get acquainted with the
milkman, his wife and children; find out where they live, and see if
there is something you can do with them.
Assignment No. 3: Get acquainted with
your newsboy. Find out who he is and what he hopes to be when he
grows up. In two months you come back and see me."
In two months she did not come back, but
she wrote him a ten-page letter. In it there was not a word about
herself and her despair. There were ten pages of joy, of pleasure,
of a new world that she had found. Why Dorothy was working on
college work, and she had coached her in Latin, and Dorothy had
passed with good colors, and they were such good friends. One of the
milkman's children had the whooping cough, and she relieved that
poor, tired mother, and they were the finest friends. She did not
understand there was a joy like that, and she sat down and wrote a
ten-page letter telling all the joy that had come into her life when
she began focusing on doing good to others. It is wonderful. There
is a mysterious power about it. It does react on the giver as well
as on the receiver.
Now we come to the question that young
people so often raise when we talk about amusement. They say, "Give
us some do's, not only some don'ts." I am ready to give you some
do's right now, if you want real fun and pleasure, that kind of
pleasure that will react upon yourself and leave its impress in
your face, vibrate through your body and stamp you with a pleasing
personality.
First of all, wean yourself away from the
soft, easy, indulgent things. Cultivate a taste for the things that
require self-discipline, action, and service for others. Hunt up
two or three juniors and lead them into something that is creative,
of helpful, rather than engage in fleeting pleasures. The younger
ones are inspired by the fellowship of an older youth.
You can find information on nature,
gardening, and flower culture. There is more mystery about working
in a garden than you and I can comprehend. There is something about
the electricity in the soil and being among beautiful, growing
things that reflects itself in one's spirit and well-being.
Then again, there is the study of shells,
animals, and minerals. What delight we get at the zoo looking at the
animals. The zoological garden will be a paradise for you if you
study the geographical distribution, habitats, and habits of the
animals and birds you find there.
Then there are mechanical arts, drawing
and printing and making greeting cards. What a world of activity is
offered also in music. Show me the boy who would not rather toot a
horn in a band than listen to the radio. There is as much difference
between sitting down and listening to a radio program and producing
some music of your own as there is between health and sickness. Let
us aspire to produce beautiful harmonies.
Then there are the opportunities of the
Sabbath school. God forbid that anyone should say, "I don't have
time to teach, to review, to prepare." Make time. Get hold of
yourself and submit to self-discipline. These things will leave
their impression upon your personality. By the time you have tasted
them you will wonder where you have been living your past life, for
there is a joy in these things that only those who have served in
them can appreciate or believe.
"The greatest benefit is not gained from
exercise that is taken as play or exercise merely. There is some
benefit in being in the fresh air, and also from the exercise of the
muscles; but let the same amount of energy be given to the
performance of useful work, and the benefit will be greater. A
feeling of satisfaction will be realized; for such exercise carries
with it the sense of helpfulness and the approval of conscience for
duty well done....
"Diligent study is essential, so also is
diligent hard work. Play is not essential. Devotion of the physical
powers to amusement is not most favorable to a well-balanced mind.
...
"The more perfectly the youth understand
how to perform the duties of practical life, the greater will be
their enjoyment day by day in being of use to others. The mind
educated to enjoy useful labor becomes enlarged; through training
and discipline it is fitted for usefulness; for it has acquired the
knowledge essential to make its possessor a blessing to others."
Messages to Young People, pp. 178, 179.
Jesus truly said, "He that findeth his
life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall
find it." Matthew 10:39.
I want to refer to one more aspect of
work. I turn to Mark 13:34: "For the Son of man is as a man taking a
far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants,
and to every man his work." I believe that God has a special work
for every one of His children to do. I believe there is a special
place somewhere for everyone who takes up his cross willingly to
follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. Let me read the words
with which Christ commissions you and me. In Matthew 21:28 we read,
"Son, go work to day in my vineyard."
We have many ways of earning a
livelihood, but there is only one work that God has given us all to
do. He has promised a joy, a mysterious power not found in just
earning a livelihood, in doing the work that He has given to each
one to do. Carey cobbled shoes to pay expenses, but his work was
winning souls. We may be doctors, cooks, or janitors, or earn our
expenses shoveling away snow or feeding the furnace, but there is a
work for everyone to do.
"Each has his place in the eternal plan
of heaven. Each is to work in co-operation with Christ for the
salvation of souls. Not more surely is the place prepared for us in
the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated on earth
where we are to work for God." Messages to Young People, p. 219.
My dear young people, I can tell you from
experience that when you have found that little corner where you can
work for the Lord Jesus better than anyone else, it will be the
greatest joy and reward that can ever come to you.
Illustrations could be multiplied, but I
think of one-an experience of five hundred people--captives on a
German raider who were landed on what they thought to be a cannibal
island. The captain of the raider knew those islands, and he was
fearful. He refused to land them on Mussau and took them to Emirau
as the lesser of the two evils. The prisoners huddled together in
the boats as they were rowed to the beach, but no arrows were shot
at them, no spears thrown. Word soon got round, and the natives came
to help them. They were clean, and when they saw the need of the
captives they took them to their village and opened their homes to
them. A neat church was also turned over to their use. The natives
stripped their gardens and fed them with all the food they had.
After the raider had sailed away, a canoe set out through the night
for Boiliu on Mussau, some twenty miles to the north, where there
was a thirty-five-foot Diesel-powered mission launch. The launch was
needed to carry word to Kavieng, about eighty miles southwest of
Emirau, the nearest government post from which help could be
summoned.
The night was dark and the sea choppy,
but for ten long hours those paddles steadily dipped, driving that
canoe on for help. Soon after breakfast the next morning the launch
was back at Emirau being prepared for its dash to take the news to
the outside world. Two days later a British ship hove-to off the
island and took the captives back to civilization. The people
thanked those natives again and again. The government tried to pay
them, but they refused any payment except a few cases of meat and
several bags of rice. Naturally there is a story behind it, and it
is worth retelling.
In 1931 Nafetali (Napthali), a young
Fijian evangelist, with his wife, Vasiti, and two children, Tina
and Joe, went to work on Mussau. The natives were savages of the
worst kind, and the going was hard, for they did not want to come to
church, nor did they want Nafetali to go to their villages and
preach. Tina and Joe were just ordinary Adventist children and did
day by day the tasks that were their lot.
Nafetali felt that he was not making any
progress, and he became ill with worry. At this time some miles away
a man died in a village, and the chief thought he would have a
Christian burial. A messenger came for Nafetali, but he was too sick
to go. "I am sorry," he said, "I do not have the physical strength."
Just then little Tina, eleven years old,
said, "But, Daddy, I could go."
"My dear little daughter, I couldn't
think of it," Nafetali said. "It would not be safe. It just wouldn't
be. You don't understand."
Tina said, "But Joe would go with me."
Joe was eight years old. Tina and Joe wanted to go so much that at
last their father bade them go and do the best they could.
They took hold of the hands of their
savage guide and walked ten miles through the jungle, and two
hundred semi-naked savages sat around while they sang a hymn and
read 1 Corinthians 15. Then they told the men to wrap the body in a
mat and to dig a hole, and the savages did it just as they were
told. At the graveside the two children read and prayed and sang
some more while the dead man was buried. Then they caught hold of
hands and walked ten miles home alone. Before the father got better
the call was repeated three times, and three times those children
braved the terrors of the jungle.
After the father recovered there was a
change. The savages wanted him to come and tell the stories from the
Golden Book, and they wanted to send their children to his school so
they could pray like little Joe and little Tina, and it was not very
long before every soul on that island, more than two thousand of
them, had cast away their heathenism and had become Christians.
I think Tina and Joe were the happiest
people in the world when they saw the results of their little deeds
of love. I am sure Tina and Joe had a joy impressed on their faces
and a light on their countenances that everybody could see. The
influence of what happened on Mussau spread to Emirau. Nine years
later, on that twenty-first day of December, 1940, the prisoners on
the raider shared in that joy.
Through Isaiah, God tells how everybody
can obtain the light of a beautiful Christian personality: "Is not
this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and
that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when
thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not
thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as
the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy
righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be
thy rereward." Isaiah 58:6-8.
From an unknown writer comes this gem:
"The Lord has given to every man his work. It is his business to do
it, and the devil's business to hinder him if he can. So sure as God
has given you a work to do, Satan will try to hinder you. He may
throw you from it; he may present other things more promising. He
may allure you by worldly prospects, he may assault you with
slander, torment you with false accusations, set you at work
defending your character, employ pious persons to lie about you,
and excellent men to slander you. You may have Pilate and Herod,
Annas and Caiaphas all combined against you, and Judas standing by
you ready to sell you for thirty pieces of silver, and you may
wonder why all these things come upon you. Can you not see that the
whole thing is brought about through the craft of the devil, to draw
you off from your work and hinder your obedience to God?
"Keep about your work. Do not flinch
because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil's dogs; do
not fool away your time chasing the devil's rabbits. Do your work.
Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let corporations resolve, let
editors publish, let the devil do his worst; but see to it that
nothing hinders you from fulfilling the work God has given you.
"He has not sent you to make money. He
has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you defend
your character. He has not set you at work to contradict falsehood
which Satan and his servants may start to peddle. If you do these
things you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself
and not for the Lord.
"Keep about your work. Let your aim be as
steady as a star. Let the world brawl and babble. You may be
assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded, and rejected;
you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and
rejected of men, but see to it with steadfast determination, with
unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and
object of your being until at last you can say, `I have finished the
work which Thou gayest me to do."'
So I challenge you, young men and women,
to go work in the Master's vineyard today. Go find the place where
you can serve God better than anyone else. Leave your ceaseless
round of selfish pleasure, your soft and easy ways, where warm and
well content you draw down the shades at eventide, say your
comfortable prayers, and easily forget.
Go with Christ to the mountain; then
filled with power, go down with Christ to the multitude. Go where it
is dark, and souls long for light; where it is cold, and souls long
for warmth; where they are hungry, and souls long to be fed; where
they are weak, and long to be strong; where they are sick, and long
to be well.
Go down where the battle is hard, where
men and women struggle and fail, and struggle and fail again, where
selfishness and greed cause souls to sink in discouragement and
despair. Go where the deadly grind of poverty has robbed the life of
happiness, and robbed the face of its joy; where the curse of liquor
makes children cry and women shriek. Go point them to the Christ of
Calvary, the way, the truth, and the life. Go tell them the Bible is
true. Go tell them Christ is coming again to receive "whosoever
believeth" unto Himself, and to give them a mansion in His Father's
house.
Somewhere, somebody needs the comfort
only you can give; somebody needs the song that only you can sing;
somebody needs the strength that only you can impart; somebody needs
the joy that only you can share.
Go, therefore, lose your lives in the
furrow of the world's great need, for "except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit." John 12:24.
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him." Psalm 126:6.