This text is saying that wisdom is right in front of the man with
understanding, but the fool does not see it. He roams all over the world in
search of what is right under his nose. The fool is like the proverbial cow
who always thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. The
wise man sees plenty of green grass in the field where he is. The fool can
be enthusiastic about what might be if only things were different, and he
was someplace else, or somebody else. He can dream of the opportunities
of the future in far off places, but the wise man sees the opportunities
before his eyes right where he is. Which of these two kinds of vision you
have will determine the success you make of your life. Sam Foss put i-
Seek not for fresher founts afar,
Just drop your bucket where you are.
We need to pray that God will give us the wisdom to drop our buckets
where we are, and fill them with the opportunities at our fingertips.
Enthusiasm which looks at great and distant ends, but neglects the means
to reach those ends, is the kind of zeal without knowledge that produces
the unrealistic visionary. Such a visionary has great ideals, but he does
little to fulfill God's will on earth, and change the real to fit the ideal. His
ideal is only theoretical and not practical. He is so busy dreaming of
things as they ought to be that he neglects doing anything about things as
they are. Dreaming of the pearly gates is neither Christian nor practical if it
leaves you blind to the gates of opportunity in front of your eyes. We
should pray frequently these words-Keep thou my feet: I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
If we learn to see the wise and practical steps before us, we can be assured
that the end of the journey will hold great things for us. We are not saying
that great ambitions for the future, and high ideals are unnecessary. On
the contrary, they are absolutely essential to give the present meaning.
The point is, we must recognize that it is only as we take advantage of the
opportunities before our eyes that we can arrive at the distant goal.
Dr. Russell Conwell is famous for his story about the Pennsylvania
farmer who wanted to sell his farm and go to work for his cousin in
Canada. His cousin managed an oil company, and told him he could come
and work for him and make a lot of money, but he would have to learn all
about oil first. So the man read and studied hard, and finally wrote to his
cousin telling him he knew all about oil. He sold his farm and headed for
Canada. The man who bought the farm had a hard time getting his cattle
to drink out of the stream because of scum on the water. When he
investigated he discovered oil valued at a hundred million dollars. The
man who knew all about oil had lived over a lake of it for 23 years, but he
packed up and went to Canada in search of it. Had he paid more attention
to his present situation he could have had everything he dreamed of.
We have got to be enthusiastic about the present if we hope the future
to be pleasant. We have got to be enthusiastic about the near at hand if we
want to reach that which is far away. The present is a means to the future,
and the near is a means to the distance. Refuse the means and you lose the
end. Grasp the means and you gain the end. This principle is
demonstrated in many lives. For example, in Frank Bettger's How I raised
Myself From Failure To Success In Selling, we have this story. Bettger
was a baseball player on the Johnstown, Penn. team. He had high
ambitions as a player, but was fired from the team on the grounds that he
was lazy. He was shocked for he knew he was not lazy. He had just failed
to put his ideal and ambition into action. He finally got another chance to
play with the New Haven team, and he knew now he would have to make
his ideal practical by expressing it. He resolves that no one would ever call
him lazy again. He resolves to be the most enthusiastic player on the team.
Bettger did just that, and he wrote, "From the minute I appeared on the
field I acted like a man electrified. I acted as though I was alive with a
million batteries." The next day the newspaper account said, "This new
player Bettger has a barrel of enthusiasm. He inspired our boys." Soon he
was called Pep Bettger, and within two years of being fired for laziness he
was third basemen for the St. Louis Cardinals making 30 times the income.
It was all because he stopped dreaming of the future, and became
enthusiastic about the present. He learned the lesson to-Seek not for fresher founts afar,
Just drop your bucket where you are.
"Wisdom is before him that has understanding, but the eyes of a fool
are in the ends of the earth." The wise man believes he can succeed with
what is at his fingertips, and he gets busy succeeding. The fool sets and
waits for his ship to come in; for a break, or for his rich uncle to die.
Fortunately, by God's grace those who were once fools can become wise. A
janitor in a big city railroad station, many years ago, had a 45 year old
helper who mopped the floor. One of the conductors like this man, and he
encouraged him to find a better job. He discovered why he was a
mop-pusher at 45 by his pessimistic reply-"How can I do better? I have no
education, and I have a wife and 3 children, and besides, a man can't get
ahead like they once could in this country." He was being a fool by
looking into the distant past, and thinking of the good old days when too
could have gone places by determination.
The conductor was a Christian, and he began to tell him of the power of
God, and what God could do with a person who would surrender to Him
and be open to His grace. He asked him to believe in the power of Christ
for the present, and then he told him of a hamburger stand for sale in a
near-by town. The mop-pusher opened his heart to Christ, and he had
new vision and hope. He went to check out the hamburger stand. The
price was $350.00 and all he had was $25.00 in cash. In his old days of
pessimism he would have dropped it right there, but his new faith gave
him an enthusiasm which refused to accept defeat. He offered the owner
$500.00 for the stand if he would allow him a year to pay it. With this
done, he then arranged with the grocer and butcher to buy supplies on
credit, which would be paid for each morning from the previous days
receipts.
This now practical enthusiastic man of faith used every means before
his face, and he worked up to the place of owning his own restaurant. He
was no longer a pessimist, but had this poem printed on his menu's as a
challenge to others:
If you think you are beaten you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
It you want to win, but think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose you're lost;
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellows will;
It's all in the state of mind.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man that wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
That there is power in positive thinking is beyond a doubt. How much
greater is that power when behind the positive thinking one knows the
hand and wisdom of Christ is guiding? Paul could say in Phil. 4:13, "I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Here is Christian
positive thinking that sees the possibilities of accomplishing God's will
with what is at hand. We do not need to search for fresher founts afar, but
just drop our buckets where we are.
Lewis H. Evans in his book Life's Hidden Power tells of a young man
who came to his pastor and said, "You talk about the happiness of religion,
but I have never found it. What is the matter with me?" The pastor said,
"I'll tell you where to find it. Go to the coal yard and get a sack of coal,
and go to the grocery store and get a box of groceries, and put your Bible
in your pocket. Then go to this address in a tenement where widow Brown
lives, and give it to her, and read the Bible to her. Then come back to me.
He did these things, and he came running back to the pastor saying, "I've
found it! I've found it!" He found the happiness in Christian service,
which was right under his nose, and never far away.
James said that pure religion before God was to visit the fatherless and
widows, and to keep unspotted from the world. To be a servant is to be a
success, and since there are always people in need of service wherever you
are, you can always be a success right where you are. When Charles
Kingsley graduated from Cambridge with highest honors everyone
thought he would go to a large church, but instead he went to a little
village of Everslie. It was a small congregation of ordinary people, and he
stayed there for 33 years. Many offers came to him to finer fields, but he
refused to leave. As the years passed England wore a path to that little
church to hear him. He was made a chaplain to the Queen, and he went up
and down the land as a flaming champion of social reform. He would have
been buried in Westminister Abbey, but he chose to be buried near his
little church. He had escaped completely the folly of the elsewhere
thinking, and he put it in poetry.
Do the work that's nearest,
Though its dull at whiles,
Helping when we meet them
Lame dogs over stiles.
See in every hedgerow
Marks of angel's feet;
Epics in each pebble
Underneath our feet.
This does not mean that God does not call us to launch out into new
territory. What if Abraham said I'll stay right here in Ur of Chaldees? Or
what if Moses was content to remain in Eygpt? Or what if Saul of Tarsus
decided that Tarsus was big enough for him, and never became the Paul of
worldwide missionary journey's? What we are saying is just what the
Bible says. Where you are is a place of service for you right now. Where
ever you are you can be used, and so seek not for fresher founts afar, but
drop your bucket where you are.
