Lisa Barry: Do you ever feel as though you could be much more effective for God if it weren't for the ugly trials that pop up into your life? Or do you think that you could serve God so much better if it weren't for those few people who seem to delight in making you feel inadequate?

Well, the other day I was brooding over someone who always makes me feel as though life is a race for success and I'm falling behind. I thought to myself, "I'd like to cut that person down to size and let her know how she makes people feel." But God was quick to say, "Lisa, that's not your job. It's Mine. What is your job, however, is to respond to her in a way that's consistent with My nature."

Do people or circumstances have you down today? Here's the answer. Practice the presence of Christ. Elisabeth Elliot will explain next on this Thursday edition of Gateway To Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talk today on the trivial round.

How many of my listeners may be thinking that the work that God has given them to do is a trivial round? Some of you have no work to do, and life is very boring. But you know, God gives us something that we can offer up to Him. There's an old hymn that I've been quoting each day-"The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask; room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God."

The introduction to a little book called BROTHER LAWRENCE was written by Hannah Whitall Smith. This man had wished to become very holy, and so he believed that the best way to do that would be to join a monastery and become a monk. He went to the monastery and to his great dismay he was given, instead of what he thought would be spiritual work, the scrubbing of pots in the kitchen.

Hannah Whitall Smith says in her introduction to this edition of the BROTHER LAWRENCE book, "What Brother Lawrence did, all can do. No theological training nor any especial theological views are needed for the blessed practice of the presence of God." The book is sometimes entitled THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

"No gorgeous churches, nor stately cathedral, nor elaborate ritual could either make or mar it. A kitchen and an altar were as one to him. To pick up a straw from the ground was as grand a service as to preach to multitudes."

Listen to that again. "A kitchen and an altar were as one to him. To pick up a straw from the ground was as grand a service as to preach to multitudes. 'The time of business,' said he, 'does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.'"

Hannah says, "This little book, therefore, seems to me one of the most helpful I know. It fits into the lives of all human beings, let them be rich or poor, learned or unlearned, wise or simple. The woman at the washtub or the stone breaker on the road can carry on the practice here taught with as much ease and as much assurance of success as the priest at his altar or the missionary in his field of work.

All must feel that anything that brings the religion of Christ within reach of overworked and poverty-stricken humanity, in the midst of its ignorance and its helplessness, is a priceless boon. This is what Brother Lawrence does. His practice requires neither time nor talents nor training. At any moment, in the midst of any occupation, under any circumstances, the soul that wants to know God can practice the presence and can come to the knowledge.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Let the 'seemings' be what they may, and we need but to recognize this as a continual, ever-present fact; and the inexpressible sweetness, to which Brother Lawrence attained, will become ours."

Let me just read you a little bit of the book itself, taken from conversations which others there in the monastery wrote down. "He expected, after the pleasant days that God had given him, that he should have his turn of pain and suffering; but he was not uneasy about it, knowing very well that as he could do nothing of himself, God would not fail to give him the strength to bear it.

When an occasion of practicing some virtue offered, he addressed himself to God, saying, 'Lord, I cannot do this unless You enable me.' Then he received strength, more than sufficient. When he had failed in his duty"-and who of us does not recognize that we have failed in our duty?-"he only confessed his fault, saying to God, 'I shall never do otherwise if You leave me to myself. It is You who must hinder my falling and mend what is amiss.' After this, he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.

'We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity,' he said, 'speaking to Him frankly and plainly and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen.' God never failed to grant it, as he had often experienced.

He had lately been sent into Burgundy to buy the provision of wine for the society, which was a very unwelcome task for him, because he had no turn for business and because he was lame and could not go about the boat, except by rolling himself over the casks. That, however, he gave himself no uneasiness about, nor about the purchase of the wine. He said to God, 'It's Your business I am about,' and he afterward found it very well performed.

He had been sent to Auvernigne the year before upon the same account. He could not tell how the matter passed, but it proved very well. Likewise in his business in the kitchen, to which he had naturally a great aversion, having accustomed himself to do everything there for the love of God, and with prayer upon all occasions for His grace to do his work well, he had found everything easy during the 15 years that he had been employed there, scrubbing the pots in the kitchen."

What I want to get across to my listeners is the concept of oblation, which means anything offered or presented in sacred service. Does it have to be in church? Most emphatically no. Billy Graham's wife, Ruth, has a large motto posted in her kitchen. It says, "Divine service offered three times daily." A gift of gladness and thanksgiving-that's what our work should be for Jesus Christ. If all you see is a trivial round, you are treating something which is loaded with meaning as if it meant nothing.

Here's a sweet letter from a woman named Anna Leigh. "Two thoughts were particularly meaningful, even life-changing to me, when I heard your broadcast. The first is the idea that a sacrifice is giving up something good for the sake of our love for the Lord. This has really changed my perspective. Giving up sleep for the sake of a fussy child. Not getting all I wanted to eat, because the baby started crying, and the little children needed help with their food, and then the phone rang-a needy friend needed a listening ear. These things are acts of service, sacrifices for the Lord." And may I add that word "oblation."

She says, "Weighing only 95 pounds, I tend to think that a certain amount of food is my due. I do need it. Of course, it is true that I must be responsible to eat well and enough most of the time, but when this is denied, I must not be angry. Jesus wasn't angry.

The second thing I learned was the idea of second causes. The idea of trust-oh, that dreaded word. As a childhood victim of molestation, I've had a very difficult time with the idea of trust. But the Lord has been showing me that I must trust Him. 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.'

And also, God says (gulp!) that I must trust my husband's leading. You put it into words perfectly. The Lord will work even my husband's mistakes for our own good. I would really like to read more of what you've written on the subject of submission."

Well, you can read my book LET ME BE A WOMAN, THE SHAPING OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY, THE MARK OF A MAN. I think I've touched on that subject in all of those books. But we're talking this week about whatever the work is that God has given you to do. And if you are as helpless as Joni Eareckson, God may not be asking you to write books and travel all over the world as Joni Eareckson does, but He is certainly asking you to pray the way Joni Eareckson does. He is certainly asking you to write letters, if you can write letters at all. I'm sure that Joni has people who can take dictation as she writes her books and her letters, and maybe you have no one that can do that.

God knows the real reasons why you can't do what you would like to do. Let's not be trying to give God any excuses, lest He misunderstand. He understands perfectly. But I would love to know that from this week's talks on the trivial round, there would be many of you that would begin to see through different eyes the great privilege you have in the work that He has given you to do. No matter what it is, He is asking you to offer it up to Him. The Lord of the universe rewards His servants not by the dignity of the office, but by the humility with which it is carried out. God bless you.

Lisa Barry: And the books that Elisabeth just mentioned a minute ago, LET ME BE A WOMAN, THE SHAPING OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY, and MARK OF A MAN are all available. Just give us a call on our toll-free line and we'll give you the purchasing information on each one.

Here's that number: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or you can write to us at Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Well, tomorrow Elisabeth wraps up this series called THE TRIVIAL ROUND with a reminder that it's the tiny nuisances in life that are most apt to trip us up. Find out why the next time we meet for Gateway To Joy.