It's been sitting on my bookshelf for some 23 years. I have packed it and unpacked it and packed it again as I moved from state to state, home to home. But I never read it. In fact, I tried to get into it a few times, and never got anywhere. I'm not sure why. But then I read an article recently by someone who rediscovered the book in her own life, and I thought - gee, I have that book! I think I'll get it down and read it. The name of the book is The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life and it was written in 1875, and revised in 1888 by Hannah Whitall Smith. I think there was a reason that I haven't read this book until now. At my age, after being a believer for over 24 years, perhaps it is just now that I can bring enough of my own life's perspective to bear on the contents of this book.

So now, I am reading it, slowly, and rereading many of the sentences over and over again as I go... partly to relish its contents, partly to let the message sink into my brain and heart, and mostly because my ability to concentrate in my reading has been at a low ebb these days (more on that in some other post..)

Ms. Smith had the ability to break spiritual concepts down in concrete terms, and this my concrete engineer brain really needs, always has. She wrote, initially, about how Jesus not only frees us from the guilt and penalty of sin in the future, but also from its power in the present moment. How too many Christians are not living the life of being delivered from the power of sin. She indicated how we must abandon ourselves fully into our Father's hands, as the clay to the divine Potter. We must lie passive in His hands, in total trust, and allow Him to work in us to make us a vessel pleasing to Him, and suitable for his purposes.

She used excellent word-pictures. I like the picture of us as children in the Father's house, running free and light-hearted with the happy carelessness of childhood. And how God's heart is grieved when his beloved children take such anxious care and thought about their lives, instead of resting in His care.

But most meaningful to me so far was the prayer of abandonment and trust by which the Christian can enter (or re-enter) into this life. I will paraphrase it here:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you are able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and bondage of my Christian life. I believe you did die to set me free, not only in the future, but now and here. I believe you are stronger than sin, and that you can keep me, even me, in my extreme of weakness, from falling into its snares or yielding obedience to its commands. And Lord, I am going to trust you to keep me. I have tried keeping myself, and have failed, and failed most grievously. I am absolutely helpless. So now I will trust you. I give myself to you. I keep back no reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, I present myself to you, as a piece of clay, to be fashioned into anything your love and your wisdom shall choose. And now I am yours. I believe you accept that which I present to you. I believe that this poor, weak, foolish heart has been taken possession of by you, and that you have even at this very moment begun to work in me to will and to do of your good pleasure. I trust you utterly, and I trust you now.

What a refreshing and renewing prayer to pray at this point in my Christian life. I picture myself as that child running gleefully through the rooms of my Father's mansion. Knowing that all is well as long as he is keeping my life. He loves me, and he is my Father. He knows more than anyone what's best for me, and would never withhold His best from me. He knows what's best. He knows what's best. If we Christians can really grab hold of this meaning, then we should know true peace and joy in the here and now.