This morning I was texting back and forth with a friend who’s been loving hard on her neighbour. She legitimately enjoys her neighbour’s company, interacts with her neighbour’s kids, appreciates her neighbour as a person. My friend has been trying to find ways to show the love of God in ways that are meaningful, but she’s unsure if it’s being received as a reflection of Jesus’ love. Just this morning I reminded her that every seed she plants counts, that we aren’t responsible for spiritual results but only for the love we show and the way we genuinely reflect the love of God. She’s doing the doings. I’m proud of her constancy.
And then what did Lukas talk about this same morning? Galatians 6:9. Don’t give up doing the good things. Even if you don’t see results, don’t worry. We aren’t after results. People aren’t projects. God gets to work in ways we can’t see or understand. Our job is to be good people and do good things.
Whew! That simplifies everything.
I wonder if my conversation with my friend, and this sermon topic, combined, isn’t aiming straight at me. Maybe this double-whammy is the brick on my head that I need to move forward.
Maybe it’s a brick for you too.
Galatians 6:9 in the Passion Translation (which is highly contested right now. I know. Just bear with me, please) reads, “And don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming.”
I love that I’m in control of how I respond to my own emotions. I can allow or disallow things to move me. I can move forward or sideways or backwards, or stop altogether. But I’m the one managing that. If I remember that I have power to choose, even against my own raging emotional maelstrom, then I can take control of situations. I am empowered. I am able. I am the master of my fate, again, and all the bleak mess that is stirring around in my soul is managed.
Lukas talked about the Greek meaning of the word ‘good’. So good! (hahaha!) ‘Good’, in the Greek, means to be “living in a habit of moral happiness”. Ah! Do what is morally sound, and find peace in yourself that you’ve done the right thing.
I tell my students all the time, “You can do hard things.” I need to tell myself this too. We all need reminders that we can do the thing our emotions are too tired to contemplate. Emotions don’t rule us; moral integrity by God’s standards is our target. This often simplifies my small but tangled daily struggles.
Lukas referred to Matthew 16:24 – “Take up your cross, and follow Me [into death],” says Jesus. A cross: a heavy piece of equipment meant to kill you.
Lukas referred to Matthew 11:29-30 – “Take up My yoke, [and join Me in the work],” says Jesus. A yoke: a heavy piece of equipment binding two animals together to do hard work.
What? Heavy crosses leading to death and heavy yokes leading to hard work. Neither sound particularly inviting.
But again Lukas pulls out the gold: a yoke back in the day, was custom made to fit the team of oxen precisely, so it wouldn’t rub sores into the animals or produce unnecessary strain. It was made specifically to meet the needs of the animals to ease up on their work load. And it was made for two, to join them together and combine their strength.
Lukas: “His yoke is well-fit for you. Custom made. Not necessarily making the work easy, but easier. It is well-fitted to you specifically.” Teaming up with Jesus means you can do your part of this work – whatever it is you’re purposed to do – with Him pulling beside you, and not get sore or strained by it.
I think I often resist the yoke. I imagine two animals that aren’t working in sync with the yoke are working against it, creating more strain than necessary. Sometimes I don’t even know how to join the Lord in whatever work I’m doing. Honestly, sometimes I don’t even know what we’re working at! I’m daft, and uncoordinated, and unfit, and often lazy.
The hard part isn’t the work, I’m learning. The hard part is getting my inner self in line with the yoke for the work. Get over my inaccurate thoughts and beliefs and self-image. Get over my lack of skill or perception or motivation. Get over my inadequacy and weakness and stupidity. Get over myself.
Do not let discouragement mess up with the system that God’s planned and provided for you. Remember your job, and pull only in ways that the yoke is custom made for. You aren’t doing the whole thing. You aren’t alone. There is your part and there is His part, and you can’t take His part on.
Actually, the image of Christ as an ox, sitting down with the yoke connecting the two of us, and Him saying, “Pull harder for a bit while I sit here and rest,” is ridiculous. If He sat for a moment I’d be yanked into a full stop, probably with whiplash.
So He isn’t stopping, and that’s for my sake as well as for the sake of the harvest-work.
But if I stop, He also must stop. Not because He hasn’t the strength to drag my sorry carcass along, and not because He hasn’t the strength to do the work alone. But because He’d hurt me. I’d be injured if He just hauled forward while I stumbled and resisted and yanked backward on the yoke. There’d be damage done to me if He and I aren’t pulling in sync. So He waits for me.
I could cry.
And besides, He custom made the yoke so we could work together. He doesn’t need me. He can do it all. He wants me to partner up with Him. And He’s gentle and kind and easy to work with.
So, if you are discouraged today about what use you’re being in His Kingdom work, breathe deeply. If your yoke with Jesus is chafing hard on your shoulders, glance over in His direction. He’s not dragging you along.
Realign your emotions with the yoke and your thoughts with your Work-Partner. And set to the task again, in perspective this time. Put your weight into your part, and let Him carry the part of the work that’s too heavy for you.