“Don’t be too easily convinced that God really wants you to do all sorts of work you needn’t do. Each must do his duty ‘in that state of life to which God has called him.’ Remember that a belief in the virtues of doing for doing’s sake is characteristically feminine, characteristically American, and characteristically modern: so that three veils may divide you from the correct view! There can be intemperance in work just as in drink. What feels like zeal may be only fidgets or even the flattering of one’s self-importance. As MacDonald says, ‘In holy things may be unholy greed!’ And by doing what ‘one’s station and its duties’ does not demand, one can make oneself less fit for the duties it does demand and so commit some injustice. Just you give Mary a chance as well as Martha!”
C.S. Lewis, Letters to An American Lady
0
0
Thanks for hitting me and my stupidly long to-do list over the head with this quote! I needed to hear this.
Thank you. And much wisdom is required these days to pull back some of these veils. Are there questions we can ask ourselves to sort of “test” whether what we’re doing is what we ought to be doing?
Thank you, Nancy!
This reminds me of a sermon exhortation/application (which I hope I paraphrase correctly) from a few years ago: God seeks obedient servants, not a volunteers.
Thank you. So true!
Ouch! Sounds like something my husband reminds me of on occasion…..
Thank you for the wise words.