Selling Cars

If you sell cars, every day there’s a big board telling you where you are individually and as a group on the goal for the month. If you work in a Doctor’s office you know how many patients you need to see a day to make expenses and pay everyone. If you are a teacher, your students will take standardized tests, which to some degree will reveal how you’re performing. I suppose one of the more challenging matters about ministry is that so much of the good you accomplish is invisible to you.

You preach a sermon and wonder whether anyone heard it. You visit someone and wonder whether they’ll even remember it, knowing that visit will have to be re-visited again before too long or you’ll be told you aren’t working hard enough. You spend time counslng a struggling Christian and never learn what happened next. You provide an answer to a deep question and often never know if it made any impact at all.

Here’s the thing: you don't get to see all the good God is doing through you.

Maybe it’ll help for you to think about it this way. Think about the people who influenced your life. Some of them probably have no idea how much they meant to you. A word they spoke. An example they set. A moment when they simply showed up.

You're probably that person in somebody else right now! I love Galatians 6:9: "…let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." Paul doesn't promise we'll see the harvest. He simply reminds us not to stop sowing.

Somewhere there's a person who is still faithful because of something you said ten years ago. You probably don't remember saying it. And they probably will never forget it. You may never know how much good you're doing. But don't let what you don't know cause you to quit doing what you know is good.

Don't quit. Somebody today needs you to keep going! And never forget – God knows!