Never For Nothing

There once was a story that I heard, a fable of sorts, and it went similarly to this: There was a person who thought that he was having guests over that he wanted to impress, so he cleaned his entire house, something he had not done for quite some time. He spent hours upon hours cleaning, and his house had never looked quite so good. But then the guests cancelled, and only his wise neighbor came by to visit. The man said, “What a waste it was to do all this work for nothing.” The neighbor replied, “What do you mean? Now you finally have a clean house!”

This story came to mind tonight as I thought about all the things I’ve done in my life that I thought had no value. Some of these things may sound familiar to you. Reaching out to a person just to receive nothing back, going out of my comfort zone, starting things that may not always turn out the way I expect.

If you’re waiting for things to go the way you want them to, and that is the only way for them to have value, then I guess you’ll have always been right. There was no point.

But if you see the clean house, the long term effects, the person you became through the process of disappointment, discouragement, and confusion, then everything will have a purpose.

There are so many stories of people who were going through a rough time and one person reached out to them, showed them God’s love, and changed their life forever. I want to be part of a story like that, and you might too. But that person who reached out may not have felt appreciated or the rewards of their work with every person they reached out to. We may only being hearing about the one out of every twenty that was changed. But isn’t that one worth all the rest?

Jesus is so often compared to a shepherd, one that will leave the ninety nine to find just one sheep that’s lost. We should be willing to do that too.

That is one motivator for trying even when things don’t seem to be reaping success. But another is that we may have no idea what the effects are of what we are doing until much later.

I recently heard the true story of a man in Australia who spent every day greeting travelers and spreading God’s love and hospitality. People absolutely loved him. One day, after years of doing this, he was getting older and in the hospital. A teacher had heard about what this man had done and about hundreds of people around the world who had become Christian because of him. He sparked questions and a longing to know what he was talking about in these people. So the teacher flew all the way to Australia to meet this remarkable person. And you know what? After the teacher told the man all about how many lives he had changed, the man began to cry. Despite doing this every single day of his life for so long, he had no idea if even one person had been saved. But he still kept trying. And it was worth it.

Many of us will never know on this side of Heaven whether anything we did for others had the effect we desired. It’s hard to wait, I know. I have often felt discouraged as I poured out my heart for people, doing whatever I thought I could, knowing that it would never be enough to get them what they needed. It’s even worse when the people you care so much about do not seem to always notice your efforts. But I have to have faith that I did the right thing, and if you are or have been in a similar situation, then I hope you do too.

Whether you are wondering if your actions for others was worthwhile or not, you can never have complete peace until you take a look at things from a new perspective. You have to see the clean house rather than the guests that didn’t show up. You have to keep going even if you don’t know if it will ever pay off. You should have the desire to do what God is calling you to do, even if it doesn’t make sense right now. Because it will.

My point is this: it won’t have worth until you believe that it does. What you do with the right heart is never for nothing.

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?”

Matthew 18:12