"Wit's End Corner"

Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner,"

Christian, with troubled brow?

Are you thinking of what is before you,

And all you are bearing now?

Does all the world seem against you,

And you in the battle alone?

Remember - - at "Wit's End Corner"

Is just where God's power is shown.

Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner,"

Blinded with wearying pain,

Feeling you cannot endure it,

You cannot bear the strain,

Bruised through the constant suffering,

Dizzy, and dazed, and numb?

Remember - - at "Wit's End Corner"

Is where Jesus loves to come.

Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner"?

Your work before you spread,

All lying begun, unfinished,

And pressing on heart and head,

Longing for strength to do it,

Stretching out trembling hands?

Remember - - at "Wit's End Corner"

The Burden-bearer stands.

Are you standing at Wit's End Corner"?

Then you're just in the very spot

To learn the wondrous resources

Of Him who faileth not;

No doubt to a brighter pathway

Your footsteps will soon be moved,

But only at "Wit's End Corner"

Is the "God who is able" proved.

(Antoinette Wilson)

A Flower Called "Heartsease"

Normally, I would not use someone else's material on my blog. Typically, I pride myself in being "original." However, when I read this story in a devotional book, it encouraged my heart in such a way that I could not help but share it with others. I wish I knew the original author, but I do not.

"...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Phil.4:11)

Paul, denied of every comfort, wrote the above words in his dungeon. A story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning, and found everything withered and dying. He asked the oak that stood near the gate what the trouble was. He found it was sick of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was all out of heart because it could not bear grapes, like the vine. The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine a fruit as the peach tree. The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac; and so on all through the garden. Coming to a heartsease, he found its bright face lifted as cheery as ever. "Well, heartsease, I'm glad, amidst all this discouragement, to find one brave little flower. You do not seem to be the least disheartened." "No, I am not of much account, but I thought that if you wanted an oak, or a pine, or a peach tree, or a lilac, you would have planted one; but as I knew you wanted a heartsease, I am determined to be the best little heartsease that I can."

Others may do a greater work,

But you have your part to do;

And no one in all God's heritage

Can do it so well as you.

They who are God's without reserve, are in every state content; for they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things restored a hundredfold.

(Note from author of The Soloist Voice: I looked up pictures of "heartsease", as I had never seen nor heard of the flower before. It is a form of the violet, small and quite beautiful. I just want to be a brave, little flower for the King.)