Grunt work is glorious work
Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. — Psalm 126:5
Christianity is grunt work. It began this way. There is nothing glorious about a battered barn, a well-worn feeding trough, and a displaced couple dropped into a sudden, overly crowded socio-economic hardship. When the baby in the story later becomes a marginalized, despised and rejected prophet teacher who preaches, “The last shall be first,” this counter culturalist doesn’t just mean it. He’s lived it.
Glamorous? Oh no, not Christianity. The faith is like going to the county fair where you don’t wear your good shoes. Don’t expect limelight, ease, convenience, or comfort. And volunteerism, while it can appear like a feel-good thing for the first hour, quickly turns into the actuality that it is all about the helpless, voiceless, and powerless. This imperfect care system stretches and sometimes fails, and there’s never ever enough money in it or around it.
Real pain, deep problems, health woes, little resources and a lot of waiting is also involved not now and again, but always.
But here’s the thing our ancient ancestors passed to us through the fiber of their bones and the strength in their faith: we who plant in tears harvest shouts of joy. We who hold crushing pains to our chests that may, in fact, sink us for a time, do come out sailing. This isn’t a prosperity gospel that wrongly espouses a one-day pain free life; this is a grunt work gospel that says God meets us in our mess. This God—our God—did then what He does now: He turns us not into fictionalized wealth and/or health winners. No, this God—our God—turns us into prayerful, praise-filled warriors.
Christians plant in tears. Real, wet, sloppy, painful tears. And we do harvest joy—amazing joy. This joy is not in our circumstances necessarily. Instead, this joy is in God’s goodness always.
PRAYER: Help us plant, deal Lord, so that we may praise You. Amen.
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