DAY 280 - It’s Worth It

Deuteronomy 8:1-10 (NIV) Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. ⁶ Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land —a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Whatever we are doing with our life, whether struggling with the issues of being single, or struggling to make our marriage work, whether striving to move up the corporate ladder or to move on to retirement the final question is, “Was it worth it?” Was it worth the energy, the effort, the sacrifices, the total cost to our life? Paul says that these struggles are “worth it” when they are a part of our effort to lead a life worthy of God who has called us. You are called. You are called to participate in the ruling action of God through the conspiracy of the insignificant. You are called to catch a few glimpses of glory, those moments in life that make all the other moments worthwhile. 

Most of the time we really do not see how a word of kindness, or a moment of listening, or the effort to try one more time really makes a bit of difference. Sometimes we see it in our families. Sometimes we see it in our work. Sometimes it is a kind of private moment we have between God and ourselves, but it is where the action is. It is where the ruling action of God is penetrating and prevailing in our homes, in the community, in the places where we work, and in our churches.

God calls us to participate in this ruling action, and, if we take our clues from Jesus, we know that the ruling action will usually take place through small acts of obedience and through seemingly insignificant people. We are constantly being confronted with the opportunities and challenges to participate in the ruling action of God, to become a part of the something greater. Will we look at our responsibilities as a way of participating in the ruling action of God?

We are called, and whether or not we answer that call determines whether or not we will come to that day when we say, “Yes, it was worth it.” It has been worth it all, whatever the cost, to answer God’s call. 

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 22, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell