A few weeks ago a friend promised to come by and cut the weeds that had grown up in front of my wall in the road. It wasn’t a massive job, but it didn’t look good.
Unfortunately he didn’t get to come do it
So I pulled them myself
Actually part of my reason for doing that job myself was to see the expression on the faces of people as they walked by. Normally I will pay someone else to do the work. Not because I can’t, but because they need the financial help.
Most of them after a look of surprise would say “John your doing some hard work!”
But what they probably mean is your doing some real work.
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that I work hard. But my work is mental through sermon prep, teaching, preaching, counseling, and writing. Not a lot of my work is physical.
That’s okay because God called me to the mental and spiritual work of being a missionary….
But that doesn’t mean physical work should be neglected.
The thing is physical work isn’t as easy for me
- Since I’m not as strong as others
- I haven’t done it as much as others (a boy recently told me I had “baby hands” it took a while to realize he meant I didn’t have many callouses)
- And I am not as good at it as others
But doing something that I’m not good at (while embarrassing) actually strengthens my ministry. Because people who never hear me preach on Sunday will be impressed by my willingness to pull up weeds.
God thankfully gives us the strength to do some things with excellence. But it’s as we attempt things we’re not excellent at (by the literal sweat of our brow) that people see a heart of humility.
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