Some Great Reward
“Many hands make light work”. That popular saying is especially true when it comes to tedious tasks such as moving, stacking chairs or the after party clean-up, but I recently began to ponder, are there times when it’s actually a negative? We’ve all heard the saying “too many cooks in the kitchen” when there are too many people in charge, but what about the workload itself? Is it possible there is a downside to having too much help?
On its face, it sure seems ideal to have more than enough people to accomplish a task – if everyone did their part, that project or event would come together quick and easy! In the Christian world, we pray, “God, send more workers!” And yet, I think there is something to be said for the fact that God sometimes doesn’t provide more people because he wants us to work hard so that we might enjoy the fruits of our labor. If we only ever had a small part to play in every task, we could potentially take those efforts for granted and might never fully appreciate the end result. However, the more we invest our time and resources, the more we will value the outcome.
I think back to a time in my early 20s when I was just beginning to be interested in music seriously. Throughout my young life I was content to just be a singer, but when I got my first guitar and began writing songs my musical aspirations expanded. Even still, I was limited in what I could accomplish alone. At that point, it seemed ideal to join a band or find a producer who could fill in where I was deficient. It wasn’t long before I met a producer who reached out and wanted to collaborate. I was ecstatic with our initial output and soon we began talk of making a whole album.
In that time he was met with some personal challenges and had to back away from the project. With half an album underway I was devastated, to say the least, but to my surprise, he believed I could finish the album alone. I had serious doubts but remained open as he began teaching me the basics of the program he used. Soon I was experimenting with composition and began to create the backing tracks I needed to complete the album. Of course, my previous knowledge of music theory aided me a great deal in this undertaking as well, but I was amazed to find I had the ability to not only create music without another person’s assistance, but songs that stood on their own merit.
What he did for me was worth far more than if he had been able to help me complete that album. He empowered me! Had I not been in a position where I was forced to stretch myself, I never would have known the joy of discovering what I was capable of. As I continued to make music from the ground up I found the final product to be so much more gratifying because it required me to pour more of myself into my work. This is not to disparage the benefits of working with others, in fact, you can have multiple people working tirelessly on the same project, but I have learned that the more I contribute to my part, the greater appreciation I feel for the final result when it’s complete. It’s no different than the deep satisfaction one has from earning something with hard work over it being handed to them without effort. If that be true regarding our personal aspirations, even more so it applies to ministry as the reward is so much greater when you consider its eternal value!
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” -Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.” -Simon Sinek
