Toiling for Wind
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
“As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:15, 16).
This is a question many of us would rather ignore. Why do we work so hard? For what? I hope you have a satisfying answer. Most of the time I don’t.
There is of course only one answer that could satisfy. We find it in Colossians. “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Colossians 3:23, 24).
As the scriptures point out in Ecclesiastes, there is no other labor under the sun that outlives the laborer. There is only one labor that we can enjoy on the other side of the grave and that is the labor we endure for the sake of our Savior.
The good news is that any endeavor can be pursued as a righteous offering to Jesus. The bad news is that, should we desire to truly serve Him, only He can define that labor. Any labor done in obedience to Jesus will live on in eternity. It isn’t some special offering reserved only for priests and preachers. The colorful and multifaceted body of Christ is served by its members in innumerable ways. The service Jesus asks specifically of any of us is always of value. In so doing we may not leave behind large obelisks or bronze statues but that is precisely the point. The labor we do for Jesus isn’t something we have to leave behind at all.
Leave a comment