DAY 276 - Worth the Effort

Mark 1:16-18 (NIV) ¹⁶ As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ¹⁸ At once they left their nets and followed him.

Philippians 3:13-16 (NIV) Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Paul says that the goal of life is neither material success nor moral perfection, but rather as being what Christ saved us for and being who Christ wants us to be. Though we may not fully attain it, the goal is worth the effort, worth the work, worth the sacrifice.

God gives our goal one piece at a time, and comes to us not as a blue print but as a list. A blue print lays everything out for us. We would like that sort of instructions for life, but even if that’s what we received from God it probably would not match the hopes and desires of our hearts. God does give us the next item on His list for the fulfillment of our life. And that next item may seem very mundane and ordinary, but it is a part of the larger goal.

It was in this way that Jesus called the disciples. The work He called them to did not seem that spectacular. They did some very ordinary things. They walked with Him and listened to His words. They did what He told them. It may have all seemed too simple and perhaps even a little uncertain.

And so it happens to us. A chance meeting with someone who presents us with a new opportunity for work, a remark is just what we needed to hear, or an idea dawns on us, and the call of God is heard. The next step is taken. And that sense of fulfillment that eludes us in the search for success is found and savored. It is given as a gift in the midst of a rather routine day.

We press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We take the next step, and then the next, and the next, and that is enough. We don’t have to arrive. We don’t have to get there. We only have to move in the right direction, in response to the call of God as best we understand it at the moment. And, even if we don’t fully understand, we press on. Forgetting what lies behind, forgetting past failures and past successes, we press on to the next God has in store for us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 23, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell