What Is

Discipline Yourself to “What is”

“God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God...If we are distressed, it is from your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 2 Cor. 1:4, 6

Many people are uselessly beating themselves against the bars of life, beating their wings out, because they cannot fly. “If I were only there, or anywhere but here, I'd be all right.”

But we've always got to live on what is. The people of Israel lived on manna in the wilderness as they journeyed to the Promise Land. The word manna means, “What is.” They didn't know what is was, so they called it “What is.” You and I too must live on “What is,” no matter if we hope to live on “What will be.” We may- like the Israelites –get tired of “What is,” but we must learn to live by it till we get to our Promised Land.

On a journey back from South America, I was forced off the plane during a Trinidad stopover due to a confusion with the airline, which had sold tickets to two new local passengers. It meant I would miss important meetings in Miami, long planned. The priority officer agreed that I had gotten “a raw deal.” But these words came to me as clear as crystal: Lord, I do not ask for special treatment; I ask for power to take any treatment that may come, and use it. Peace settled within me.

That sentence it self has lingered like a benediction within me ever since. I lived by it during that waiting period in Trinidad, and have lived by it in many a situation since. To get that sentence was worth the delay. If I don't get what I like, then I shall like what I get. Out of every unjust, impossible situation you can rescue something. You can live on “What is.” And the manna will feed you, sustain you till you get to God's better things.

“O Christ, You lived on the manna of the silent years of obscurity in Nazareth. Help me to live on what comes, good, bad, or indifferent. Amen.”

Taken from, The Way

 E. Stanley Jones

 365 Daily Meditations