Privileged and honored. That’s the only logical response to the news we heard in Sunday’s sermon: God has made each of us ambassadors for His Kingdom, and through us He makes His appeal to those dwelling in a realm of fear and death. I’m afraid we don’t always embrace it for the privilege it is, though. It reminds me of a devotional given by Tom Anderson at a Bible quiz meet some years ago, with the help of Mark Twain...
Do you remember Twain’s Tom Sawyer? It seems that one perfectly delightful Saturday morning when “all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life,” Tom appeared on the sidewalk, a paintbrush in one hand and a bucket of whitewash in the other. The morning would be spent whitewashing the fence – Aunt Polly’s orders. Tom “surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank... compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged.”
By midafternoon, though, a succession of friends had swapped prized possessions (twelve marbles, a one-eyed kitten, six firecrackers...) for the opportunity to paint a section of that fence. After all, it was an exclusive job (Aunt Polly had insisted on Tom’s doing it!) and not just anyone could pull it off - but they could be a part of it! Tom had managed to make the job so appealing that they eagerly traded hours of personal freedom for the privilege of sweating and laboring with a paintbrush and a bucket of whitewash.
Sometimes when I’m doing something for the Lord, I remember those boys at the fence. One had a deep aura of gloom and looked for any way out of it... the others enthusiastically gave away a personal treasure for the privilege of doing exactly the same thing. One envied his friends’ carefree existence, while others willingly gave up their leisure. One was finally content to loll about, collecting trinkets, while the others actually accomplished something.
The difference, of course, is that when I work for the Lord I’m not just doing somebody else’s work for them; I’m carrying out God’s assignment to me. I’m not just joining a lesser cause that has been inflated to sound grand and glorious... there is no greater cause! And I’m not working for someone who didn’t want the job himself; I’m working with Jesus in a quest for souls that means everything to Him. I’m trading a brief “day” of leisure for an eternal Day of reward. I’m trading personal trinkets for treasure in heaven that will last a lot longer than the pop and fizzle of a half-dozen firecrackers.
Makes me feel honored to stand at His fence today...
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I am always intrigued, (and a bit envious) by those like my wife who can always see the positive side of negative life events. It really isn't the circumstance that we are called to go through, but our interpretation of the event that determines whether we will rejoice or despair through it. As Paul in Phillipians 4:11, said, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. That is what we must try to find in our calamity through God's grace Thanks, Sandy for the reminder, there is a bright side to painting our fences.
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