This afternoon I felt exhilarated after working three+ hours with Mom cleaning up an extraordinarily messy blackberry patch, but tonight I felt overwhelmed. I am grateful for all three stewardships my family shares responsibility for (a family ranch, a family farm, and the house+property my immediate family actually lives on), but sometimes it is hard to work and work and work and NEVER be done.
So it was a sweet moment reading these words tonight:
"Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lieth in futurity, pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things.
You know, brethren [and sisters], that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.
Therefore, dearly beloved brethren [and sisters], let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."
:)
Yes, the idea of being done is appealing, but the world doesn't seem to work that way. ;-) Usually you just have to pace yourself and keep on swimming...
ReplyDeleteI like the Jewish saying: "You are not required to complete the work; neither are you free to desist from it."
And the Shaker aspiration: "Hands to work; hearts to God!"
(And I think idleness feels more restful when you know what work you're resting from.)