Taking the Long View

Something I read this morning jumped off the page; let me share it with you. It was written by Eugene Peterson and included in The Message Study Bible on page 1827.

‘Acts of giving aren’t like pebbles dropped in a pool that make a few temporary ripples and then sink to the bottom, inert. They’re seeds planted in the soil of life, and they will come up one day. The harvest is inevitable. “Don’t be misled; No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.” [Galatians 6:7] Decisions are seed. Attitudes are seed. Acts are seed. Prayers are seed. Thoughts are seed. And all of it will come to harvest.

The person, though, who looks for quick results from planting seeds of well doing will be disappointed. If I want potatoes for dinner tomorrow, it will do me little good to go out tonight and plant potatoes in my garden. Long stretches of darkness and invisibility and silence separate planting from reaping. During the stretches of waiting, we must cultivate and weed and nurture and plants still other seeds. The task is endless. There appears to be little reward and only meager appreciation. Giving is fatiguing. Why continue? Because there is a harvest ahead. “So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good.” [Galatians 6:9]’

God has given us faith in His Son and called us His children. He has placed us within families and our church. He has given us jobs to work at. He has blessed us with homes and possessions. Why? That we may use all that He has given us to serve other people in love. It is not flashy. It won’t gain us celebrity or wealth. Sometimes it is really hard, but it is life, the life we live in fellowship with God to hallow His name, to serve in His kingdom, and to do His will on earth as it is in heaven. By faith in Jesus, we live each day in the light of eternity in hope of its arrival. So don’t give up, live on!