6. What Shall We
Do?
IT IS ONE THING to be a powerful orator addressing vast audiences from a platform, another thing to be an effective teacher, and quite another thing to be remembered for a vast amount of individual counseling and personal attention to individual problems. Teacher has been successful at all three.
Dr. Raymond I. Lindquist, senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, writes: "Long before I arrived at Hollywood First Presbyterian Church I had heard of the energetic, magnetic and photogenic Miss Mears. Rumors had come to me of her ability to lead a group in Bible study, worship, and Christian decision. All these hints and glints materialized when I came. But something else revealed itself, like the background of a photograph as it comes up in its wash of chemicals. This was her almost incredible absorption in young people as separate persons. This was seen in her constant round of interviews at her own home and in the Saturday morning prayer meetings there. And it is in this double exposure, as it were, that I find the secret to her success. It is the quality of being able to move the group and then to shape the individual. Miss Mears moves from the general to the particular, from the crowd to the person . . . It is my privilege to minister to jet pilots at various times in the church year. At one of the fields where I have led spiritual emphasis programs, the officers have at various times taken me up in their fire-snorting jets. In the realm of transportation there are few thrills greater than going with a Korean ace for a screaming ride through the sky. However, one does not have
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to get into a jet plane to have the sensation of moving rapidly. One way to approximate such a flight is to be with Miss Mears when she is presenting an idea that is dear to her heart. Her speed of speech clearly exceeds the sonic barrier. She gains altitude in nothing flat and is off. A mere man is a little dizzy when she finishes. How she keeps up this pace is a mystery to me!"
While Teacher has placed a great emphasis on challenging young men, her counseling and inspiration has been on an equal basis between men and women. She has counseled and prepared just as many ministers' wives as she has ministers. She has gained loyal support and devotion from just as many feminine followers as she has of the masculine variety. She has presented a balanced program.
Ethel Barrett, who recently joined the staff of Gospel Light Press, writes: "For years before I met Miss Mears, I heard about nothing else except "Miss Mears," until I thought nobody could possibly be that wonderful, and frankly, after a while I wearied of it, and the very name began to pall on me. By the time our paths were about to cross, I was prepared to dislike her; I had decided that she must be at least a diva, and at the most a much overrated woman. Then I met her in New York. That she would be prodigiously capable I had no doubt, but it was her artlessness and warm friendliness that surprised me. I was temporarily disarmed, but with reservations. I decided she was probably hard to live with. I was to find out . . . When our paths crossed again, I did live in her home for several weeks, and found that through the strain of tremendous conference responsibility, through the hot weather, through the never-ending demands on her time, she persisted in remaining the same "off stage" as on! Now I'm working with her. I don't know which is the more severe test, 'living with' or 'working with.' It doesn't matter; she didn't come down one notch in either capacity. I think if I were to single out one sentence to pay her tribute, it would be to commend her in the one channel in which far too many Christian workers fall down: she is utterly devoid of professional jealousy; she'll support and promote, and build up other speakers with the same enthusiasm that she puts into everything else! She is delighted when the Lord blesses their ministry. I think anyone who has ever been in the limelight and is aware of its perils, would be quick to recognize that as the hallmark of a great person."
Ruth Bell Graham, Billy's wife, writes of how much Teacher's counseling has meant to her and says: "I know of no living woman who has blessed us more . . . I well remember the night she stepped onto
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the platform at Harringay in North London . . . in a canary yellow coat and a hat of watermelon pink or red. She looked good enough to eat. She was undoubtedly the first and only saint they had ever seen in technicolor! There sat Miss Mears, 'a thing of beauty and a joy forever' as far as I was concerned. But for all her being a pleasure to look at, it isn't Miss Mears herself who impresses you; it's her Lord. There was a little scraggly apple tree here on our mountain. This fall it was loaded and dripping with bright red apples. There was so much fruit you could hardly see the tree. Everyone who passed said, 'Look at those apples!' No one said, 'Look at that tree!' That's Miss Mears . . . One final incident — when one thinks of Miss Mears, it isn't just of little refreshing, delightful incidents or even of funny things. I think she has the greatest capacity for loving people of almost anyone I know. She taught me a wonderful lesson. Some seven years ago, while we were in Los Angeles, Dr. Edwin Orr invited me to attend a prayer meeting of the Hollywood Christian Group. One of the actresses was called upon for her testimony. Now Miss Mears and I happened to be sitting together on a little love seat; it was close enough for me to hear her muttering under her breath. I was reared in the Orient, where if one was built like a woman, one overcame it the best one could, and I sat there like the Chief of Pharisees. But Miss Mears was muttering, 'Bless her heart! I just love that girl! She is the dearest thing!' See what I mean? Some of us talk about love. Miss Mears loves. No wonder God uses her!"
The wonderful thing about Teacher is that she counsels others by her example. She isn't satisfied with just teaching; she practices what she teaches.
One night recently, after the Wednesday night prayer meeting in the College Department, a young man came up to Miss Mears.
"You know, Miss Mears, this baffles me. I've never had an experience like this before. I'm a graduate engineer of Michigan and I'm one of General Motors' favorites. But I've never known anything like this personal relationship with Christ that you talked about tonight. Christianity to me has just been a code of ethics. But you make it personal relationship! Everyone here seems to have it, and they seem so enthusiastic and sure of themselves — and I'm just baffled. As a graduate engineer I thought I knew it all!"
Then Miss Mears explained what Christianity really is — that it isn't just a code of moral ethics or a system of theology, but that it is a Person; and what the young men and women had done in that department
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was to accept a Person. Then she opened her Bible to John 1:12 and read: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name . . ." then they talked for about twenty minutes, carefully exploring the meaning of the verse, and other related verses. Then Miss Mears looked at the young engineer. "Would you like this experience with the Lord? Would you like to know, without any shadow of a doubt before you leave tonight, that you are a Christian, that Christ has taken your life and that you know Him as a Person, as Your Saviour?"
"I would!" he said with deep feeling.
They bowed their heads in prayer. First Miss Mears prayed and then he led in a wonderful, warming prayer filled with sincerity.
When they looked up from prayer, another young man was standing near. "Excuse me for eavesdropping, but I need the same thing this guy needed." So the engineer went over to have punch and cookies and with great joy in his heart to join in the singing around the piano, while the new young man sat down beside Miss Mears.
"Miss Mears, I don't get it!" And Miss Mears opened up her Bible to John 1:12 as though it were a brand new idea.
A young married couple was just leaving Miss Mears' office. They had been at the point of separation, and in desperation had gone to Miss Mears. "How does she understand our problems so amazingly well?" the woman gasped in astonishment.
"It beats me," the young man answered, not very profoundly.
"She has never been married and yet she gets right to the heart of the problem," the wife stated in surprise.
"I guess she just understands human nature, and I imagine that's the same whether you're married or not. Then she just gives you the spiritual help you need and everything is right again," said the young man, this time very profoundly.
A young college boy bounded out of her office. "How does she understand me so well?" he asked his friend. "She's never played football!"
Miss Mears explains it with a twinkle in her eye: "I just give them Psalms 37:5. It's amazing how all-inclusive and limitless that verse is! It's a continuing and growing verse. Its beauty and enduring strength have impressed me more and more through the years. No matter what the problem is, I can point to that verse. Life isn't like a city hall that is dedicated once. Life must be dedicated and committed daily as new needs and problems arise." If you hear anyone stressing Psalms 37:5,
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undoubtedly that person has been in contact with Miss Mears. Wherever she has been she has left a trail of hearts repeating: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."
A mother came to Miss Mears dreadfully upset over the welfare of her daughter, in great concern over the young man she was dating. "I just don't know what I'm going to do, Miss Mears. I just can't stand the anxiety!"
"You must commit it to the Lord," said Miss Mears.
"But I just can't let it go at that!" cried the worried mother.
"Why not? Why not ask the Lord to take over when He can do so much more of an effective job than you can? Now when you commit your daughter to the Lord, it's just like standing at the door when your daughter goes out on a date and saying, 'Good-bye, dear; have a good time!' Then you close the door and say, 'Now, Lord, you get in that car and ride right in the front seat with them!' Then you just sit down at the piano and begin to play and sing and say in your heart, 'Thank you, Lord! You can take so much better care of her now, far better than I ever could!' "
Another mother was deeply concerned over her son and the fact that he did not want to go to church with her. "I've lectured him, Miss Mears; I've scolded him, I've nagged at him, and it just doesn't do any good."
"Of course it doesn't; he's probably good and sick of the whole subject," said Miss Mears reasonably. "Now, listen; it will be hard, but don't even mention church to him. Don't nag, don't scold or tell him what he should do. He knows what he should do. You commit the problem to the Lord. He knows all about it. Then next Sunday morning, be happy and confident that the Lord is going to work it out. Go down to the kitchen and sing and fry the eggs and just let your son be surprised by your confident manner. He'll know something is different. But don't mention going to church with you."
The full tide of church activities swept over Miss Mears for several weeks. Then one Sunday morning the mother came in radiant and happy. "Oh, Miss Mears, you could never guess!"
Of course she could guess. There it was written all over the mother's face! But she asked eagerly, "What is it?"
"Well, I've been singing and frying eggs for three weeks now," the mother said, "and this morning my son said, 'Say, Mom, don't you want me to take you to church?' And he's here, Miss Mears! He's here!" and she rushed away to meet him.
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Miss Mears smiled as she watched her hurry down the hall; then she turned to another woman who had stopped beside her.
"Oh, Miss Mears, I'm so worried! You see, my husband . . . " And at that moment a husband somewhere in Hollywood didn't know he was being committed to the Lord, but the day would come, and he would know and be grateful.
Miss Mears combines Bible truths with good, practical, human psychology, which is, after all, Bible truths. One man who had been counseling junior boys at Forest Home had a wonderful, transforming Christian experience. He was excited and thrilled and was telling Miss Mears how eager he was to go home and tell his wife all about it.
"Now, see here," said Miss Mears firmly. "Your wife is not a Christian. You go down bubbling over about this, and start forcing it down her throat and all beside yourself with enthusiasm, and she will resent it and reject it. You just very calmly go about your business; commit it to the Lord. Live it, don't talk it, and see what her response will be."
A young girl came into Miss Mears' office. She was from a wealthy family and had every advantage of her position. Her family even tried to buy friendship for her by furnishing tickets to plays and operas and paying the expenses for outings and trips for the daughter and her friends. But no lasting friendship could be bought. Now there were tears in the young girl's eyes. "Even though my parents have done all these wonderful things for my friends, they desert me and leave me alone. And I'm so lonely. You don't understand how it is to be lonely; you have so many friends. Everyone loves you, Miss Mears!"
Miss Mears "busied" herself with some papers. She, who was never too busy for counseling said, "I do understand how much true friendship means. Now, I'll tell you what, I have some important work to do that I just must tend to, so while I do this work, you take this pencil and paper and sit down on the couch over there and write down every single quality you would like in a friend of yours. Then we'll see what we can do when you've finished your list. I know every girl in this church, you know."
The girl sat on the couch and thoughtfully and seriously began the list while Miss Mears again "busied" herself with her work. Some time later Miss Mears saw that the girl was finished and asked her to bring the list to her desk. It was a beautifully written list of qualifications of a perfect friend. Miss Mears read it carefully.
"This is the kind of a friend you are looking for?" she asked.
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"Oh, yes," replied the girl fervently. "Where can I find someone like that?"
"My dear," said Miss Mears gently, "Do you realize that everyone is looking for a friend just like that? Now, why don't you go out and be this kind of a friend and let others find the friend in you that they are looking for?"
"But you don't understand, Miss Mears; I'm looking for a friend like that!"
"And so is everyone else. If you are this kind of friend, everyone will be so happy to find someone like you that you'll be swamped. When you start thinking of others, others will start thinking of you. And you know, the most important and wonderful thing for you to remember is that you have the Perfect Friend, Christ the Saviour, in your heart. You need never be lonely, no matter how alone you may happen to find yourself temporarily."
"All right, Miss Mears, I'll try, I really will!" said the girl with a bright smile. "It will be a game. I wonder how long it will take someone to find the perfect friend that they are looking for in me?" And the embryonic perfect friend left the office to be the "perfect friend" for someone else to find.
Miss Mears never allows anything to take the place of her personal work and counseling and never turns down a need if it is humanly possible for her to meet it. She always tries to make time available to individuals, but often it is impossible when she is working with others and has group commitments. In counseling she tries to develop the individuals, but often it is impossible when she is working with others and has group commitments. In counseling she tries to develop the individual's capacity to analyze his own problem and come to a solution. People plead with her in connection with their lifework, or some great issue. "Just tell me what you think, Miss Mears! I won't do it, I'll decide for myself but just tell me what you think, I just want to know!" But Miss Mears always stresses that the solution must come from the person's own thinking processes. She always helps to take him to the one Person who knows, to Christ. She believes that a human counselor should never attempt to direct the personal lives, but should help a person to be objective with his problem and to get it out in the open so it can be seen in proper perspective. It is always easier to look at a problem with someone else. By the time a person gets his problem out and has a chance to see it impersonally, he can usually see the answer. A counselor should never urge his personal analysis on anyone or overcome anyone by using the force of an idea, she says. Miss Mears always tries to be objective when counseling others and
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to enter their feelings and their moods to see why they are at a point of indecision. She is sensitive to the reactions of others, and tries to put herself into the other person's place and is constantly analyzing deeds and conversation, to see how they might be impressing the stranger in the group, the newcomer without Christ.
Yet she denies that she is burdened at all!
Someone asked Miss Mears, "How can you be so fresh and radiant even after a whole day of counseling, even past midnight at times, listening to all the burdens and problems that you do?"
"Oh, that's because I don't take any of it on my shoulders. We just pass everything right over to the Lord. Horrors! If I took any of it on my shoulders, I'd sink! But I just don't take any of it to myself. We just commit it to the Lord."
To illustrate "commitment," Miss Mears holds her Bible in her hand. "Be very definite about your committal. Here is your problem represented by this Bible. Give it over to the Lord. Take your hands off of it completely. Now trust and thank the Lord. He has it." She then lays the Book on the table. "Now, keep your hands off it. Don't pick it up and turn it over to see if it still weighs as much or if it is the same color. Commit it and leave it with the Lord."
A young medical student from Norway, who had his doctor's degree and was studying to be a brain specialist, was staying at Miss Mears' home for the summer while taking graduate work at U.C.L.A. Miss Mears was happy to have such a magnificent and intelligent young man as a summer guest in her home. She invited him to go along with her to a meeting she was holding one night at the church.
It was a hot summer night and there on the third floor of the church was a room filled to overflowing with young people who had met to learn the most effective way to win others to Christ. When the two of them returned home, they went into the kitchen to get some ice cream. The young man relaxed and started to open up in conversation.
"Miss Mears, I don't quite understand all this. You talk about surrender to God and I don't quite like that term 'surrender.' That means to me that you don't have to use your own brains, as if you destroy your personality and become nothing. Here I am studying to be a physician, a brain specialist, and I expect to be operating on the most delicate part of the human body. If I just surrendered myself to the Lord, I wouldn't need a brain. I wouldn't need anything!"
They were standing there in the bright, attractive kitchen, the red
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and white strawberry print on the dining nook looking perky and gay. Everything was shining and in order. Miss Mears looked thoughtful for a minute. Then she looked up toward the ceiling.
"All right, look at the electric light there above you. It isn't turned on now. I turn on this switch, the light fixture surrenders to the electric current and the light fills the room. It didn't destroy its personality by surrendering itself to the current! The very thing happens for which it was created and the room is filled with light. If it didn't have the electric current flowing through it, it would be useless." She crossed the kitchen to the electric orange juicer and switched it on.
"Look at this orange juicer. We plug it in to the same current. Does it become an electric light? No, it works now as an orange juicer, the thing that it was created for. It doesn't destroy itself. It just operates now, and works for the first time; before it had the form, but no power. Here is the washing machine. We plug it in. It doesn't become useless; it uses every screw and bolt and part that it has to work as a washing machine. It's the same current for every single thing but each one comes to life to do the job for which it was created." She pointed to each appliance in the kitchen "There's the toaster, the refrigerator, the vacuum cleaner, the clock, the beater, the mixer — they are all useless until they surrender themselves to the electric current. Then they work!"
The young doctor nodded his head. "I understand. If I'm 'plugged in' to God, He will illuminate my mind and my fingers with His power and make them more skillful?"
"Exactly!" agreed Miss Mears.
"Well, I would like that kind of a God."
"Of course you would. People are afraid and they think God is going to destroy their personalities, not realizing that He gave us those personalities and potentialities that we cannot realize or begin to fulfill in our own strength. He takes the things we have that are dead in themselves and makes us really brilliant. Young people are afraid that God will come to the fireplace and put out the fire, take the violin and break the strings instead of realizing that he will increase the fire on the hearth, and make more beautiful music on the strings of the violin."
"I understand now. God gave me my brain. He will give me greater knowledge of how to use it in helping others," he said and he thoughtfully turned off the light as they left the kitchen.
One effective counseling step Miss Mears has practiced has been
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the "laboratory test." Her years in the chemistry laboratory have stood her in good stead in spiritual counseling with collegians who spend much of their time in that same laboratory approach to learning. When dealing with a self-proclaimed atheist or infidel, she invites him to use the "laboratory method of approach." The student is intrigued.
"Let's take Revelation 3:20," says Miss Mears, turning to the verse in her Bible and reading: 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' Now, let's take that verse and put it in a 'spiritual test tube.' As a chemist, if I had an unknown, I wouldn't run around asking everyone what he thinks it is, and I wouldn't taste it, or smell it, or feel it, or throw it away. I would take the unknown in the test tube to the laboratory and give it three 'runs.' I would then know by the results what the 'unknown' was. All right, let's read the verse again. 'Behold, I (the unknown quantity) stand at the door, and knock.' Now, will you be willing to say, 'If Christ is what He says He is, I am perfectly willing to have Him reveal Himself to me'?"
Miss Mears then points out that in the Orient everything is learned about another person through discussion with that person, through endless conversation. It is through that same conversation and fellowship that Christ offers His fellowship to us.
"But how on earth do you open your heart to someone?" asks the baffled student. "How can a person come into your heart?"
But Miss Mears is way ahead of him: "Oh, you don't know what it is to fall in love, or to open your heart to a particular person, or to admire and respect some great hero?" she asks smilingly.
The student's answering grin admits defeat on this point. "Now, then," Miss Mears briskly continues, "There are three things you can do when Christ is knocking at your heart's door. First, you can keep still and pretend He's not there, so He would go away. Second, you can call out and say you're busy or not interested. Third, you can open the door. Now, if Christ is Saviour as he claims, what are you going to do? And remember, as with an unknown quantity, we agreed that we were going to let Him prove Himself. Now, what are you going to do?"
If someone says that he doesn't believe in the Bible or in Christ, Miss Mears points out, "That doesn't need to keep you from reading the Bible. You don't have to believe to read. You don't believe fiction but you read it. But will you promise to read the Book of John with a
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completely open heart and mind? For this Book wasn't written to those who believed but, as John writes in Chapter 20:31, 'But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through his name.' "
Miss Mears doesn't know how many people she has advised to do that. "And it always works. 'Come let us reason together, saith the Lord.' He doesn't say it must be rammed down a person's throat or forced into his mind. The Holy Spirit will do the work in the heart. All we have to do is lovingly to give a reason for the hope that is within us." And that is what Miss Mears does. She makes it so reasonable that the most brilliant mind and the simplest child are drawn alike to the Lord Jesus Christ.
A young man marched into her office, great determination written all over him. "Miss Mears, I've finally decided that I'm going to be a minister."
"But Jim," said Miss Mears in surprise, "I thought you were going to be an engineer. Isn't that what you've been training for?"
"Well, yes, it is, Miss Mears, but I just sort of think I ought to be a minister."
"But wouldn't that be wasting the three years of engineering training that you've already had?" she asked dubiously.
"Yes, I guess it would be, in a way," Jim answered
"Then I think you'd better be an engineer."
"But Miss Mears! Don't you want me to go into the ministry?" he wails.
"Mercy, no. What on earth have I got to do with it? It isn't important what I think!"
"Well, I think the Lord wants me to."
"It's a very serious decision to make, Jim. If there is anything else you can possibly do, I would advise you not to go into the ministry."
"But that's just it, Miss Mears!" he finally burst out. "I have to be a minister. I just can't be anything else! I've been praying and thinking and weighing all sides and I just know that it's the right decision. I can't do anything else. All I want to do is to be a minister!"
"All right Jim," said Miss Mears with a twinkle in her eye. "Now, we're ready to talk business."
"So many people come to me and ask me how I get so many young men to go into the ministry," said Miss Mears, "and I just laugh, because I've never asked anyone to go into the ministry. In fact, you
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would think I was discouraging them rather than encouraging them. When they ask me if I think they would make good ministers, I tell them it isn't a question of what I think at all; it's only a question of whether it is God's will. I tell them that if they can do anything else under the sun they shouldn't go into the ministry, because it is a marathon of moral courage, mental power, and spiritual and physical endurance. Unless a man is ready to accept that fact he will never be a success in the ministry. If he cuts down on the physical strength and only gives part to the Lord, it will never work. If he has any other interests he would rather pursue instead of the Kingdom's work, he will not be effective. When these young men finally say that they can't do anything else and they know it is God's will, then I'm ready to talk with them. All who have gone into the ministry from here have definitely been called by the Holy Spirit and not by any human voice. All I do is hold up God's love and create an atmosphere in which the Holy Spirit can speak to their hearts."
* * * * * * *
"That verse just doesn't work, Teacher! I've been committing and committing, and it just doesn't work!" A young seminary student came in and threw himself down on the leather chair.
Miss Mears fastened a severe, piercing look on the miserable young man. "Dave," she said sternly, "when I taught chemistry I used to hear from all my students, at one time or another, that an experiment wouldn't work. I always told them I knew the mistake was theirs. They had left something out or added something extra. But just as the experiments in chemistry work if we do what is expected of us, surely the laws of God and His promises will work in our lives. Now, Dave, you've come out here to be a blessing to these young people this summer, but you will never be worth a plugged nickel until you have victory in your own life."
"But Miss Mears, I'm suffering so. I can't sleep nights. My grades are falling off. I have two courses of action to choose between, and I just don't know what to do. And I have committed it. I've completely given it over to the Lord."
"Dave, either you're a liar, or God is, and I think you know which one of you I think it is! Now if you have committed it as you claim, can you thank the Lord right now that He has the problem and that He will work it out? Can you walk right out of this door at peace and not be troubled again?"
"No," Dave replied meekly.
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"Then you haven't really committed it, have you?
"No," Dave admitted.
"You have just been going through a pretense, playing games and trying to make a liar out of God."
"I hadn't thought of it that way," Dave said, very subdued.
"Let's kneel down right now and commit it, and really do it this time." And they knelt down beside her desk and really committed it this time.
Soon the joy and bounce came back to Dave; he said one day, "O.K., Miss Mears. You win. I'm not a liar any more. As it turned out, neither decision was right, and an altogether new development materialized and it turned out to be by far the best way to go." It isn't always "either-or" with God. Sometimes it's "neither," something entirely different. You could substitute a thousand names for Dave and the incident would be basically the same as they all remember kneeling at one time or another by Miss Mears' desk.
Teacher turned to a worn place in her Bible, "Here's another favorite verse of mine: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the scripture hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.' I like that!" said Teacher with her buoyant enthusiasm. "Rivers of water! Amazon rivers!" and by her very expression you could see the rivers plunging and cascading over dusty waste lands, torrents of water, waterfalls in mighty power! No trickling dribbles for her; she wants enough water power for a dynamo powerful enough to illuminate a world in spiritual darkness. She has never wanted half-measures in God's bounty. She wants the full measure, full and overflowing. No halfway journey is enough; she wants to go all the way with the Lord; no half-done job; she wants to go to the uttermost. And she wants to take everyone she counsels along the way.
When it comes to witnessing and counseling, Miss Mears knows that the Holy Spirit must be at work in both hearts. If the Holy Spirit is not at work in the heart of the person hearing the witness, it is all to no avail.
Teacher's counseling runs the gamut of human problems. A Los Angeles physician had faced the most grievous loss of all, the loss of his beloved and beautiful young daughter, through polio. In desperation one day, he called Teacher, for his family had been in the church for years. "Miss Mears, can you come over? It just seems that I cannot
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go on. This first Christmas without our daughter just seems too much to bear, and I don't think I can stand it."
She went to the home immediately, and looked at him with love and compassion. "It is harder for you because you are a doctor, and you are filled with thoughts and regrets; you are probably thinking constantly of what you might have done differently. But you must not look in the past. You must keep your thoughts in the present only. You are looking ahead to Christmas without your daughter. You are looking ahead to the occasions when her absence will be most keenly felt. But right now, my dear friend, do you think you can live through just the very next moment?"
"Yes," he said considering it, "I think I can manage the next minute."
"Well, do you think you can get through the rest of the day? Just that much?"
"Yes," he said reflecting the possibility, "I think I can manage the rest of the day."
"Then that's all there is to it," said Teacher. "God just expects us to live moment by moment, just through the day. And He promises strength for that day. Do not go ahead of Him. Just this moment, and then the next moment, and then, after that, the next moment."
* * * * * * *
To me, the most touching scene of all the counseling incidents in Teacher's life is the time she counseled herself. Her beloved mother passed away, at Christmastime in 1910. In 1952, her beloved sister, Margaret, also died just at Christmastime. To lose this sister, this soul mate, sustainer, close companion and homemaker, was a tremendous blow, physically and spiritually, to Henrietta Mears. The Sunday preceding her death, they had attended a banquet together, and also one on the following night. Returning home from the second banquet, Margaret insisted that they should stop and buy more dressing for the Christmas dinner. "I think you should invite more foreign students for dinner, Henrietta. We can make room for several more."
When they got home, the last thing she did before going upstairs was to ask Henrietta to help her pull out the dining room table a bit more, enlarging it to its greatest capacity. "See," she said, "now we can fit in some more people for Christmas dinner." Within twenty-four hours she was dead, literally stepping from a banquet table on earth to a banquet table in heaven. I am sure the housekeeping of heaven has been well managed since Margaret's arrival.
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Though Margaret was seriously ill, Teacher was assured that everything was fine, so she hurried over to church to check up on the big family Christmas program. The next morning Margaret was gone. How did Teacher face the days? She kept going. She checked up on the prayer meetings, she taught the class on Sunday. When someone asked her why she didn't stop, she said, "I've been counseling others for so long and telling them that at a time of great loss and grief they must keep going, they mustn't quit, they must live moment by moment; so can I do any less than what I have counseled others to do? Should I expect any less of myself than I have expected of others?"
