No One But God May Know

 

My Facebook friend Jennifer Dukes Lee, in her book “Growing Slow,” talks about times when they went to the beach.  One of those times, she encountered a dad and his son building a sand castle.  As the day went on, others, many of whom were strangers, would join the two and help build the castle.  At the end of the day the castle was adorned with many towers, a moat, a stairway, and other kinds of bling.  And one thing everyone knew was that the castle at some point was going to come down, whether from humans or from the waves.

Sure enough, the next day the castle was down, having been destroyed by some kids who had jumped on it.  Dad and his son were there, building another castle.  When asked about the one that was destroyed, Dad just said, “We know these castles won’t last.  We come to this beach every year.  Our favorite part is building castles.  They never last.  But this is what we do.  It’s hard work, but mostly, it’s just a lot of fun.”

Ms. Lee then says this:  Here's what I learned on that beach:  We may build some amazing things in life that last a long time. But not everything we build will produce a measurable legacy.  Your best efforts may be washed away or trampled.  You may be forgotten.  No one but God may know about the most meaningful things you did with your life because they were done in obscurity, when no one was watching but Him.

She continues:  You might think that what you’ve built with your life so far isn’t all that grand.  But maybe that’s not the point, anyway.  It’s not what you’re building; it’s Who you are building with.

Come to the shore.  Kneel next to your Father, and get your knees dirty as the sun warms your back.  And when the day comes to a close, stand next to your Father, and take a moment to admire what you’ve done together.  Then, watch as He turns to you, squeezes your hand, and says, “Wasn’t that fun?  Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

This is Jay now.  Recently, I’ve been thinking about some of the things that I do in everyday life and work, and how futile those things I do sometimes seem to be.  And I think we all can relate to that feeling that we’re just spinning our wheels…we’re just going through the motions…we’re just doing what we are supposed to be doing as we go through our day.  Our best efforts, it seems, don’t bring about much in the way of change or recognition.  We begin to feel and believe that what we are doing is not productive at all, and more than that, no one notices what we do and no one recognizes our efforts.

The point of Ms. Lee’s post, however, is that we should place less emphasis on how much we think we accomplish and more emphasis on doing the good works that God the Father has given us to do…working alongside Him as we joyfully work with Him to renew the creation.

The fact that we may well never see the results of those good works is irrelevant.  The fruit of those good works may not be apparent ever, or may become apparent only years or even decades later.  Or we may see those good works seemingly destroyed much as the sand castle was destroyed.  That doesn’t mean we cease to do the work.  It only means that we continue those works for as long as we are given the breath to go on.

Nor does a failure to receive recognition from others for those works give us permission to cease those works.  We aren’t in the good works for the recognition and accolades from others.  We’re in the good works business because God accomplished a great work in us…forgiveness of sins, our salvation and our adoption into His family.  That’s why we do what we do.  The accolades and recognition make us feel good for a moment.  But our recognition of God’s great work in us and our thankfulness and gratitude for that great work are what should be driving us to those works.

Whether our good works consist of raising a family in the shelter of the Lord, providing good value to a customer from the business we own or work for, giving someone a ride to the doctor’s office, donating food to a food bank, being neighborly to those in our neighborhood, or whatever it may be…we do them out of our gratitude and thankfulness…not for the recognition and accolades.

May God continue to bless you with wisdom and strength as you go about the good works He has given you to do.