Personally, I think that my humble reach of only two people might overwhelm me with feelings of inadequacy. Why get up and preach at all, if only two people will hear it? Why waste the gas in my car, and electricity and rent on keeping up a building and grounds, for only two people? What good am I really doing? But this man understands the concept of faithfulness.
Faithfulness to God means that even if your reach is only one person, you are fulfilling God’s plan for your life. Furthermore, what is the likelihood that if he were to close his doors tomorrow, those two people would find another church willing to get them to and from church each Sunday? These are two souls for the kingdom! Two lives being impacted and cared for. When you put it into perspective, you can see how this man’s faithfulness is impacting eternity.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23
This shows us that our diligence and faithfulness isn’t just about the people that we are serving, but more so about serving God. Not all of us are called to lead a church, a ministry, or an organization, but those who are should be faithful to the cause and calling that has been placed on their lives in doing so. This means that those who are called to a position of leadership are held to a higher task of leading others to Him through their personal faithfulness. For the rest of us, serving others and being faithful might look more like the leadership role of this pastor, where the actions we take and the effort that we put in only affects one or two other people; but that doesn’t diminish the importance of our roles. When we are faithful to God in what He has called us to do, whether in serving our families as husbands, wives, and parents; or in working our jobs with integrity and honesty, we are doing a work for God Himself.
…since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:24
One of the things that I struggle with most, being a stay at home, homeschooling mother, is feeling worn so thin by my life that I begin to despise my choice to stay home. This is purely selfish, but it’s a natural human reaction. It’s hard to watch my kids rewarded for their efforts in school and extra-curricular activities, and my husband getting accolades and raises and promotions, and yet sit back knowing that no matter how exhausted I am, how many hours I put in, no one is going to stop and give me an attagirl. It isn’t that I don’t get compliments from my family, but there is seemingly no real reward for my service. This is where I compare my vision of life with that of the pastor, and find myself coming short. When God gave him a calling, pastoring that church, he was faithful to it, no matter how small the reward. When God gave me my calling, being a mother, a wife, and homeschooling my children, I should take it as the largest requirement of faithfulness that there is. My family is shaped by my own hands and what is inside of my heart. My reward for that faithfulness was never a reward I would see in this life, aside from knowing that my children grow into functioning, godly adults. My reward is in the next life.
Let us all look at our lives as a test for faithfulness. Whether it is being faithful to answering God’s calling in our lives, being faithful to our spouse, being faithful as an employee without griping, being faithful to clean toilets and keep a smile on our faces. Every single thing that we do on earth should be done to honor God, faithfully, regardless of whether we feel it really gets noticed by others.