H. S. Lewis - Attracting Success - Instrument of the creative work of God
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I do not say that no man or woman today is justified in seeking a position, an opportunity to work or serve or a place to live and labor so that he may receive in return for his efforts such compensation as will make him happy and enable him to meet the necessities of life and enjoy the blessings. It is a just desire. Such a desire is commendable; it cannot be criticized. But there must be more to it than that if you hope to attain it. If your desire stops there, it may be commendable and pass the judgment of man as being proper, but it does not meet the judgment of the Cosmic Mind or of God.
I think that one of the most simple and beautiful of phrases that modern philosophers ever wrote in a tract manner, as would be of popular appreciation, was the little phrase which says that
'God could not be everywhere; so he made Mothers.'
God could not carry on His creative work in all parts of the world as He did in the beginning, so He created Mothers to be the instrument of His creative work; but He also created men to be channels and instruments for other forms of creative work, and until a man or a woman entering upon any path of labor or any path of effort can conscientiously say,
"I am laboring with God, for God, as one of his instruments,"
he is not going to attempt the real success that is possible. […]
You cannot tell whose work is the most important. You cannot tell whether the great four or five thousand Watt lamp on the street corner gives the most illumination, or whether the little pea light at the head of the surgeon's instrument, to guide him in safely cutting, may not be the greater light. Success in life depends upon your contribution to the necessities of the nation or the community on the one hand, and your fulfillment of some Cosmic mission on the other hand.
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