“Every member a worker, and a work for every member” —A. J. Tomlinson
A. J. Tomlinson’s challenging words (above) remind everyone that all can do something for God no matter what. It is certain that no matter where we are in the world and who or where we are in the Church, we can, by God’s grace, brighten the corner where we are. There is an old hymn we used to sing, perhaps some of the youth may never have sung it before, it is entitled “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.” Some of the lyrics of the song are:
Do not wait until some deed
of greatness you may do
Do not wait to shed your light afar
To the many duties ever near you now be true
Brighten the corner where you are.
Here for all your talent you may
surely find a need
Here reflect the bright and Morning Star
Even from your humble hand
the Bread of Life may feed
Brighten the corner where you are.
The hymn encourages us to gleam for Christ right where we find ourselves now and not wait for some sort of platform that may be able to catapult us into the so-called “limelight” of public or Church attention. Neither should one wait for some special occasion, event or opportunity, but one should identify and understand that especially in our normal, even mundane, everyday lives we can do some good deed, share some encouraging words or simply testify of what the Lord has been doing in our own lives. You can be a worker!
One does not need special acknowledgment or recognition to shine for Christ wherever he or she finds him or herself, after all, Christ’s notice of us is a recognition far greater than any other; rather, we should acknowledge and recognize the great necessity that strangers, coworkers, neighbors and families have of the Saviour. Let’s not leave all the work to the pastors or the evangelists, although they have a special calling on their lives into the ministry for which they will report to the Lord, but you and I someway, somehow, to some person or persons, can be the difference makers if we simply brighten our important corner of the world.
You may judge that your corner of the world is not important, but if there is a soul near you it is, in fact, an important corner of the world! Take a look around, without respect to persons, do you see the poor, rich, sick, healthy, happy, sad, friendly, unfriendly, small and great? Most importantly, do you see the soul? Allow me to remind you of some of the words of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, “Ye are the light of the world...Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).
Christ is the True Light, and He has lit a flame in every child of God with full intent that we should be used of Him where He has placed us for His Father’s glory unto the saving of souls. Do we believe that we are where we are today by accident? Dear loved one, you are exactly where the Lord needs you to be, and you are an important part of God’s great program. The splendor of the glorious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ which now shines in you is not to be hindered by past or present life conditions. We may, at times, ask ourselves, “What difference can I, one person, really make?”, but we underestimate the power of ONE. Read the following tidbit of information I found during some personal time of reading:
ONE mischievous boy can break up a school. One false alarm can cause a panic. One match can start a conflagration. One false step can cost a life or ruin a character. One broken wheel can ditch a train. One quarrelsome worker can create a strike of ten thousand men. One undiplomatic word can provoke a war involving thousands of lives and destruction of millions of dollars in property. One hasty act of legislation can entail untold hardships. One wayward daughter can break a mother’s heart. One lie can destroy a person’s character. One false witness can send an innocent man to jail. One vote can decide an election. One kind word at the right time may save a person from suicide. One sermon may fire a man’s soul and set the course for his future life. One drink may start a person on the road to alcoholism. One wrong example may lead dozens down the wrong path. One decision for Christ will determine future destiny.
And the Bible says: “one sinner destroyeth much good” (Eccl. 9:18). Yes, just as one broken link can make a chain useless, just as one leak can sink a ship, or just as one worm can spoil an apple. But we are glad to note that ONE can do good, as when one good word makes a heavy heart glad: “Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad” (Prov. 12:25). One faithful ambassador is health: “A wicked messengerfalleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health” (Prov. 13:17). Just one word spoken in due season—how good it is: “A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” (Prov. 15:23). Just one word:
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Prov. 25:11). Noah found grace in the eyes of God, one man upon the whole earth, and because of his obedience the human race was spared. Esther put her life in jeopardy and risked death by daring to enter in to the king’s hall, she saved her nation from extinction. Jonah, after his escapade, went to Nineveh in obedience to God and preached, and a great revival of repentance broke out in the city.”
Oh, the power of ONE! There are two great personages whom we often speak of from the Old Testament passage of 2 Kings 5; and rightly so, because by Elisha the prophet of God and Naaman the captain of the host of the king of Syria, God was glorified. Yet there is one person often overlooked in this whole account who, as a matter of fact, is far more important than either of these two men of renown, for without her neither of these two men would have had this encounter.
She has no name; at least her name, unlike Elisha’s and Naaman’s, is not shared with us—she is only known as “a little maid” (v. 2). Perhaps her name is not given on purpose since it affords us the chance, if we will take it, to add our name in its place, therein granting us the opportunity—better yet, the privilege to place ourselves in her spot and to do as she did—brighten the corner where she was.
We know by Scripture that her country had been attacked by the enemy, Syria, and she had been brought to Naaman’s house a captive, no doubt a slave and a servant void of any rights or voice. Let us continue to consider her possible life’s conditions. Her parents may have been slaughtered during Syria’s invasion of Israel.
She must have seen her city destroyed and burned to the ground; if not, she may have at least had the unfortunate occasion to witness her childhood community destroyed. Who knows if she may have had siblings whose whereabouts were unknown to her when she was removed from her homeland. She was torn away from friends and loved ones and the comforts of her home, to be dragged away to an uncertain future.
How would you and I fare under such sorrows of life? What would be our spirit under similar experiences? Have tough and unexpected experiences of life caused us to feel like the prophet Jeremiah who said, “I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name” (Jer. 20:9) in his time of temptation? Perhaps it would be all the reason to abandon the faith and wallow in self-pity. We have all, somewhere along the way, had our fill of sorrow and heartbreak and, unfortunately, others may come, but what we do amid those moments is what ultimately matters.
Take courage dear saint, have another look at this one little maid’s testimony in Naaman’s house. She is reminiscent of that great man Job who, having lost everything, declared, “...Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Furthermore, it was said of him, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:22), and this same spirit seems to have taken hold of this little maid, and can take hold of you and me as well. She was not there by accident, nor were her circumstances merely unfortunate. No! Someone has said, “Unless affliction is seen to be God’s work, it does little good to the soul.” They were God ordained! God knows how to put us where He needs us, and He knows what to allow into our lives for His divine purposes.
Unto the man who was responsible for the army of Syria—the same army which was dispatched by his orders to ravage her homeland and strip her and her countrymen of all they had and ever hoped to be—she, seeing his infirmity unto death, would in effect say to him, “I know a Man whom you can go to and be healed!” It is apparent that she had no anger or resentment or hatred in her heart toward this man, or any man, nor was she entertaining a pessimistic spirit of “Woe is me, how can I help, if I need the help?” The little maid was not looking for a blessing but desired to be a blessing! She wasn’t talking about “I’m just barely holding on,” but she had, as it were, laid hold of eternal life!
She, looking beyond herself and beyond this man’s own faults, observed his need. She goes on to share the news of help, health, and hope that can be found in God; not from the vantage point of having achieved her life goals, ambitions and dreams, or from the comforts of a life where all things had turned out the way she planned them, but amid her life’s condition as a captive and servant in Naaman’s house and the experience of all that led to this point in her life.
What an inspiring example of one person who brightened the corner where she was, regardless of her circumstances! Calling or no calling! She was not some great preacher, like the prophet or a person in great authority like Naaman, but she was one person who obeyed God.
What is our excuse to not shine for God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ? Has our love for souls waxed cold due to our past or present experiences or actual circumstances? Paul asked, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). What is it, dear saint? What could cause the love of God, love for our neighbor, to exit our lives? “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39). Don’t let life take it away, but be determined to brighten the corner where you are! Be determined! Be determined!
Do not wait until some deed
of greatness you may do
Do not wait to shed your light afar
To the many duties ever near you now be true
Brighten the corner where you are.
Somewhere she had learned, somewhere she had seen, somewhere she had experienced the love and power of God and did not forget about it when it mattered the most—when she was alone and even afraid. I wonder how many times Naaman and his wife walked past her while in his house and paid little to no attention to her, yet there in that place of little importance and little recognition that one little maid was the difference maker because she dared to tell them of her great big God upon recognizing his great big need. Oh, isn’t it true, we have a mighty God who is a match for mighty needs?!
Now imagine Naaman’s arrival at home to his wife and family after dipping seven times in the River Jordan according to the words of the prophet Elisha. His leprosy was gone; his flesh was left like unto that of a little child and was no more plagued by that horrible and dreaded flesh-eating disease. Imagine the joy of that man and his family and an untold number of others who knew what he was like before. Imagine the little maid’s delight. He wouldn’t have to keep people at a distance anymore, he wouldn’t have to hide any more, he had no need to feel ashamed anymore because his leprosy was gone!
Now imagine when you see that unkind and cruel man or woman come through the doors of your local church with a kind and gentle new behavior because you dared to “brighten the corner where you are” and made mention of a Man, Jesus Christ, whom they could go to for healing. Imagine the drunkard or drug addict whom everyone has lost hope for, even their very family, coming to a time of fellowship clean and in their right mind because you worked for God and brightened the corner by telling them “Come to God.” These are not things to be merely imagined, they have happened and will happen if we will only work for God where we are.
Work for God, dear saint, let your light so shine, brighten the corner where you are no matter the circumstances—pleasurable or disagreeable—which you are presently in; without respect to persons, whether you are under special appointment in your local church or not, whether you feel as if you are a God called minister or not, whether you hold an evangelist’s license or not, do as this little maid who right smack dab in the middle of her day-to-day living saw a need nearby and took the opportunity to tell someone about her God and His goodness toward us.
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