Don’t Give Up
By Grant Gaines
There once was a young man who was so stressed, frustrated, and burned out from all the busyness of his daily schedule that he decided to quit his job and move out to a quiet, peaceful cabin in the mountains. As the man’s first day of isolation came to a close, he sat down in his cozy chair next to a warm fireplace when all of a sudden he heard a knocking at the door.
Somewhat surprised and incredibly spooked, the man gingerly opened the door prepared for the worst but hoping for the best. However, much to his surprise, there was no one standing outside of his door. But before the man closed the door to return to his comfy seat, he heard the unmistakable audible voice of the living God.
“Do you see this giant boulder outside your cabin?” The Lord asked. “Yes sir,” the young man stuttered in a fearful reply. “Tomorrow when you wake up I want you to push this rock.”
And without another word, the Lord’s voice was gone. All the man had was one single command-push the giant boulder that was outside his cabin. So what did he do when he woke up the next day? He pushed the rock! In fact, he pushed the giant boulder from sunrise until sunset every single day for the following 364 days.
When it had officially been an entire year since the man received the command from God, he was pretty sick and tired of pushing the boulder without ever seeing even the slightest progress so he decided he would not leave his bed that day. But the sun hadn’t yet peaked over the tree line for 15 minutes before the man heard a knocking on his cabin door. Knowing it was God, the man stormed to the door and demanded, “What do you want!?”
God replied, “Why are you still in bed? Why are you not pushing the rock?”
“I’m not pushing the rock,” the young man angrily retorted, “because ever since You told me to push the rock, I haven’t budged that boulder one single inch. Every day I’ve been out here pushing the rock from sunrise till sunset and this stupid rock hasn’t moved at all!”
It was silent for just a moment before the man heard God’s tender voice say, “Who told you to move the rock? All I asked you to do was the push the rock. All I wanted you to do was to be faithful in what I asked you to do. Now get out of the way and let Me do what only I can do.”
I love that story because I can see myself using the same logic the young man used. More often than not, I want to see results if I’m going to continue doing something. If I’m working out, I want to see muscle growth. If I’m on a diet, I want to see weight loss. If I put in more effort at work, I want to see my efforts rewarded in my paycheck. Does anyone else share the same sentiment? Aren’t we all at the end of the day a results-oriented society?
But just like the story above, I believe that we so often miss what God really wants us to do because we are too busy looking at the bottom line, the numbers, and the results rather than faithfully doing what the Lord instructed us to do. Take the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 for example.
In this parable Jesus told His audience a story of a man who scattered seed on four different types of soil – a path, rocky soil, shallow soil, and finally good, rich soil. The seed in the story represents the Gospel and the four different types of soil represent the different responses people have after hearing the good news of the Gospel. Only one type of soil successfully grew the seed that was planted – the good soil (obviously).
Only a 25% success rate isn’t great at all, but do you remember what God said to the sower in response to the poor success rate? Nothing. The Lord didn’t criticize the man, demand that he have a better return on his investments, or threaten to bring in a new farmer to take his job. All the farmer was expected to do was plant the seeds, God would take care of the growth. All the farmer had to do was to be faithful while God would take care of turning his faithfulness into fruitfulness.
In fact, being called “faithful” is the greatest compliment God can give us when we stand before Him after death. God won’t look at us and say, “Well done, good and fruitful/rich/successful/funny/athletic/or powerful servant.” Instead, we are told that on that last day, the greatest thing our ears can hope to hear from the Father is, “…Well done, good and faithful servant…” (Matthew 25:21, NIV, bold mine).
God isn’t as concerned with your results as He is with your efforts. God wants you to faithfully do good with what He has given you and leave the fruitfulness up to Him. So just because you don’t get that raise at work, that compliment from your family, or see that immediate conversion of your unbelieving friend, don’t give up. Continue to be faithful and let God do what only He can do.
Are you excelling in faithfulness today?
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
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©Grant Gaines 2013
