Monday, March 16, 2009

As unto the Lord


I poured my life into them.
I worshiped with them.
I prayed with them.
I cried and celebrated with them.
I spent many thoughtful hours preparing gifts for them.
I genuinely loved them.
But in the end, I was betrayed by many of them.
My broken heart was confused and indignant. How could this have happened after all I’d done for them? Pouring my life into these ungrateful people now seemed like wasted time and energy. Is there no reward for effort? If I had only known it would turn out like this….

You know what I mean. You’ve been there. I don’t need to tell you who “they” are. “They” can be anyone. Family. Students. A spouse. A congregation. “They” can be friends, co-workers, or an organization.

God’s been there.
Jesus poured His life into people.
He worshiped with them.
He prayed with them.
He cried and celebrated with them.
He spent many thoughtful hours preparing a gift for them. *
He genuinely loved them as no one else could.
But in the end, the majority betrayed Him and killed Him.

Christ’s heart was broken, but not because He was confused or indignant. He didn’t whine, “How could this have happened to me?” He did everything good knowing exactly how it would all turn out. And how did it turn out? After the bloodshed, after the pain and suffering, after having His heart broken from the weight of the world’s sin, He sat at His Father’s side victorious. Mission accomplished. His effort received a priceless reward…Us.

Anything and everything I do for people is wasted time and energy. But anything, everything done for the Lord will be rewarded.

Our priceless reward? Him.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” ~ Colossians 3:23-24





* Think Garden of Gethsemane.

(c) Drewe Llyn Jeffcoat 2009

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful, Drewe-Llyn and something I needed to read today. I hope your words will sink in today, as it's been especially hard to let go of some of those betrayals of the past year. One in particular was so terrible that I think of it continually and need to let it go.

I especially love this: "Anything and everything I do for people is wasted time and energy. But anything, everything done for the Lord will be rewarded," and will say it over and over today, when my mind wanders to what went wrong.

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Very well said and true!

KarenW said...

The pain of betrayal is difficult to bear. Remembering that we are working for our Lord and not people, and knowing our Lord suffered the same and so much more, brings comfort. Beautiful! Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I came to say thanks for the nice comment you left and then ended up being SO blessed by your post. Thank you!

Much love to you, dear friend!

jen

Unknown said...

This was a great reminder, Drewe. I am dealing with some foul attitudes from my STBX, and I needed to read this today