I have found it a good practice for me to keep busy during fast days. So yesterday, which is a fast day (being a Friday in Lent), I decided to take the day and replace the brakes on our old Toyota Corolla (that we affectionately call “Crayola”). I had been collecting all the parts and preparing them for a good day to do the work, and yesterday was perfect.
As is normal, it took much longer than I expected, those drum brakes are a challenge! As I began to recover from the nearly full day of work doing brakes, I thought about how anti-climatic this type of work is once done. If I had washed the car, I could have had immediate satisfaction. But because I did the brakes, there isn’t a single soul who will ever see what I accomplished. Truth is, even I look back at the car and it looks just the same. Outwardly, nothing has changed.
In our western culture of productivity, success is often gauged by the results. When we accomplish a task such as replacing brakes, something that isn’t seen, the sense of accomplishment can be lacking.
In our lifetime of pursuing the will of God, our efforts can seem like my brake job, a lot of work with no visible change. In fact, for anyone other than me, the brake job would be undetectable, because nobody was familiar with how the brakes even felt beforehand. We walk in this world interacting with others, bearing burdens, sharing laughter, doing life, and very often a visible result isn’t seen (or, often, even known).
In our walk following our Lord Jesus Christ, we will experience more of this non-visible witness and undetectable result than we’d probably like. I think of the church, and how often the question is asked “how many people go there?” or “how many young families do you have?” and so forth. But that is not how Almighty God would have us think. We should think about the bigger picture, and the effect that the Holy Spirit has on one’s heart (a heart which we cannot see nor fully know).
We are called to do the work that we are called to do. We are to do it faithfully, and let Almighty God handle the judgment of whether it was “good work” and productive. There are many missionaries around the world who have served many years that never get the opportunity to see a convert commit to the faith. But the work they do is of great value, and it will bear fruit when the season comes.
The same goes for you, do the work you are called to do faithfully and to the best of your ability. Don’t worry about the results, don’t judge your work by the visible expressions that are seen. We should always remember, it is what is not seen but dwells within that is most important. This result is always seen by Almighty God, and that is all that matters.
Our verse for today comes from Matthew 25:21 (ESV) where Jesus says in parable-
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Almighty Father, give us the will to do Thy service faithfully, and help us to know that if we have done Thy will, we have done enough; through Christ Jesus our Lord, who with Thee and the Holy Spirit are One God, now and forever. AMEN.