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Soul Snack 8/29 ... A Servant's Song


"... but I said, 'I have laboured to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain, and for nothing. Yet, what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God'." Isaiah 49:4

A dripping brow and weary fingers work on. Tirelessly this farmer plants another row of seeds. Whether he knows God or not, this is still a step of faith, impotent in his ability to deliver the nourishing rain. The season for rain may transpire. The rain might nourish, or it might be withheld. His diligent efforts may have been delightfully rewarded, or they may have been tragically hindered.

Consider the worker, preparing for the function in a still empty church. Vacant chairs arranged neatly and symmetrically around a fresh supper. Consider the band still tuning for a still absent audience. These 'farmers' too plant for a crop that they could not guarantee.

The suffering of sowing, the strength sapping duties of Christian service, or the solitude of devotion can seems so fruitless. For the farmer and worker alike, failed results can be so dis-spiriting.

Yet, wisely this servant only seeks God's assessment. They live and work only for an audience of one.

There is no servant of the Most High who is unobserved or unnoticed.

Where servant may see failure God will only see fashioning and faith.