Know, Rather than Feel, that You Make A Difference

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Co 15:58 AV)

This is something that every servant of the LORD struggles with.  Does our service matter?  Are we making a difference?  Are lives changed?  Are people motivated to walk with God because of how we minister to them?  What strikes me here is the phrase, “…forasmuch as ye know…”  There is no wiggle room here.  This means that when we doubt our effectiveness or usefulness, it is not based on reason, but rather, emotion.  If Paul is stating we know, then reality is based in facts, not feelings.  This is the core of the struggle over our worth or effectiveness.

 There is a game we used to play with our teen class years ago.  It is a game that is readily available and still a lot of fun.  Perhaps you have heard of it.  It is called Jenga.  The object of the game is to pull out as many blocks before the tower collapsed.  We upped the fun factor by writing a dare on each block.  The players had to either perform the dare, or surrender the block to the opposing team.  The team with the most blocks won.  It may seem as though each individual block is insignificant.  However, any engineering expert will tell you that removing one block makes the whole structure a bit more unstable.  Each, on its own may not mean a whole lot.  At least to the casual observer.  Each one is significant, though, because to remove even one would make the whole just that bit less stable.  Science will tell us that energy in motion seeks to stay in motion.  We may even call it the law of cause and effect.  Every object or event is dependent upon agents interacting with it.  No event can self-originate.  No object came into being purely on its own.  Which means, simple interacting in our world means we effect it.  Either large or small.  The natural world teaches us that each component has and effect on all other components in which it come into contact.  Such it the case when considering our lives.

 As Clarence told George Bailey, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives.  When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”  So, here is our word of encouragement.  When we feel that our life doesn’t matter a whole lot, or if we are making any difference at all, just remember, we may not be seeing much difference, but the laws of nature and common sense tells us different.  God put us here to be part of a plan whether we feel we are a part of that plan or not.  One way or another, our lives will have an effect on others.  Therefore, the counsel of Paul is sound.  Don’t quit even if you feel the world would miss you at all.  It would.  Don’t retire thinking your efforts mean little.  They do mean something.  A smile could be the impetus to changing someone’s day who, in turn, helps another.  Paul’s statement is true.  We know this!  So, let us stop feeling sorry for ourselves and continue to make a difference.