Beside
The Well
One
of the most dangerous and exciting things I can do is to get around people who
are brainstorming or looking for ideas.
I love to make plans and initiate programs. My mind seems to be constantly working through
ideas and looking for better ways to do things or for more things that could to
be done. Drives my husband crazy. I can see his countenance fall when I start
thinking out loud. It is as if he
believed I actually expected him to do it all.
Over the years I have tried to learn to keep my thinking to myself. But sometimes, it still slips out.
One
of Spurgeon’s devotions painted an amazing picture that explains the difference
between my valentine and me. Starting
with an anonymous quote, he wrote, “Little sticks set great ones on fire, and a
little wisp is often used to enkindle a great block of wood.”
I
am definitely a wisp—fully designed for sparks.
I do not burn long and slow. I
dart from project to project always looking for the next challenge. I dream big and wide across a whole spectrum.
My
husband, however, is definitely a log.
He is grounded and settled. Once he has a vision, he will work
consistently and wait patiently for however long it takes to see it to
fruition. Rushing him only causes
frustration.
I
see every new project as exciting; he sees it as work. I get antsy when things don’t work out quickly;
he has the gift of mercy and longsuffering. That makes for quite a team, but
also for quite a struggle! I like being
a wisp and I’m glad my other half is a log.
There are pros and cons to both sides, but together, God uses us to
accomplish His will.
Spurgeon’s
comment was “Thus we have known persons of small talent and position influence
their superiors by their zeal. Though
themselves able to do but little, they have been full of fervor, and so have
ventured further than the more solid and prudent felt at first inclined to
do. When we meet with persons of little
substance but of considerable kindling power, let us put them together like
matches and splinters of wood, for the commencement of an enterprise, and when
we find others to be like heavy old logs, let us put them to use when the flame
has taken good hold, for if they once get thoroughly alight they will sustain
the fire long after the straw and the shavings have passed away.”*
How
wonderful that God has created each personality with a positive and purposeful
design. Spurgeon ends by putting forward
a question, “Reader, which are you, a wisp or a log? In either case there is a place for you…to be
consumed for your Lord’s service.”*
*Spurgeon, C.H., Illustrations and Meditations or Flowers from a Puritan’s Garden,
Passmore & Alabaster, London 1883, page 60.
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