Why to Keep Going
Did you know that hopelessness is a sure sign that we are believing a lie? Because when we believe correctly in our God, there is always hope. I was feeling despondent recently, and my smile seemed too difficult to dredge up. When not even the musical worship at our church could coax a smile out of me, I eventually just sat down cross-legged and waited for God to speak.
"What’s the lie?" I asked. “Why does life seem too hard for me?”
Thinking about all the things that I was feeling despondent about, I realised that it just seemed as though my efforts were fruitless. Everything that I worked at just seemed to make zero difference. Every dish I washed and packed away was back in the sink within hours, every child I disciplined seemed to show no improvement. I worked to clear my to-do list, only to have it filled again, often times by the very same things. I wrote a blog for someone on their request, and they felt it didn’t help them much. I wondered why I bothered trying to impact other people’s lives, since so many, many times, I made no difference at all. I felt brushed off by people I tried to help, and all in all, it just seemed that I was achieving nothing. It seemed that no-one appreciated just how much I was doing! Golly, not even I appreciated it, seeing as though it wasn’t making a difference in anyone’s life.
Just as I was thinking these things, the light bulb came on for me. The lie I was believing was this: My efforts are fruitless.
Instantly, as God exposed it as a lie, I began to smile, and even suppress giggles. Ha! What a joke! My efforts are fruitless? Ha! What a laugh! The enemy would love that, wouldn’t he? Making me think my efforts were fruitless, indeed!
The world runs on the little tasks we do each day, tasks that need to be repeated in order for the world to continue to run. The kingdom is advanced by our little daily efforts. God sees the sum of all our little efforts, yours and mine, and he sees us taking ground! He sees us punching holes into darkness, one little candle-lighting at a time. Fruitless! Ha!
Yes, sometimes it seems like we’ve said the same thing to our child everyday forever. But looking back, I can also see tremendous growth in my children, and am proud of the people they are becoming.
I was reminded of an analogy in business: My friend runs an online shop, and she tells me that only 5-10% of her browsers actually make a purchase. So if she sells 10 items a day, it means she must have attracted 100 people to her website to browse that day. It might seem like “hardly anyone is buying” compared to how many people she has managed to direct towards her website through all her advertising, but guess what? Her business is making bucks!
A sermon preached or a message written might go over the heads of 100 people, and into the hearts of one. A hundred times our child might need reminding, and then, Ta Da!, the towel is hung up without you telling them, or they ask nicely instead of snatching, or they greet someone without being told to. Yes, it’s like running on the beach where our steps seem to push backwards, and yet slowly we see we are moving forwards.
Imagine if all of us fell in to the trap of thinking our efforts were fruitless? We may as well give up and just close our church doors, and walk out on our families. We need God’s perspective to see the ground we’re taking. It’s not just about me, today. It’s about us, over time. And overall, the sum of our lives will amount to a world-changing, generation-shifting, kingdom-advancing reality! Ha!
