“Those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep.”
Brother Lawrence
It often takes great faith to say at the end of a job, “That’s enough.” Sure, there are jobs that we are ready to quit before we start, and others that weary us to a breaking point—these may not require great faith. But there are some jobs that we simply do not have enough hours in our lifetimes to finish. These are jobs like learning to use a day well, rearing children, and growing in holiness. We can reach a level of excellence in these duties but we can never perfect them. There comes a point when we simply have to abandon them to God.
The spirit of our age tells us that we can control outcomes. All we must do is wake up an hour earlier, stay up an hour later, work through our lunch breaks, and read one more book on time management. But every time I set one task upon my workbench to master, I knock another two to the floor. My frail hands can only hold so much for so long.
What I believe is called for is faithful living. By this I mean living a life full of faith. But faith in what exactly? Faith in a God who is able to take our work and make it enough.
This means two things. It means our first duty is to work, “to act, that each to-morrow find us farther than to-day,” as Longfellow put it. We must work because God must have something of ours to work with. But it also means that we must rest, because our work alone will never be enough. Only in the hands of an infinite God could it ever be.
Brother Lawrence
It often takes great faith to say at the end of a job, “That’s enough.” Sure, there are jobs that we are ready to quit before we start, and others that weary us to a breaking point—these may not require great faith. But there are some jobs that we simply do not have enough hours in our lifetimes to finish. These are jobs like learning to use a day well, rearing children, and growing in holiness. We can reach a level of excellence in these duties but we can never perfect them. There comes a point when we simply have to abandon them to God.
The spirit of our age tells us that we can control outcomes. All we must do is wake up an hour earlier, stay up an hour later, work through our lunch breaks, and read one more book on time management. But every time I set one task upon my workbench to master, I knock another two to the floor. My frail hands can only hold so much for so long.
What I believe is called for is faithful living. By this I mean living a life full of faith. But faith in what exactly? Faith in a God who is able to take our work and make it enough.
This means two things. It means our first duty is to work, “to act, that each to-morrow find us farther than to-day,” as Longfellow put it. We must work because God must have something of ours to work with. But it also means that we must rest, because our work alone will never be enough. Only in the hands of an infinite God could it ever be.
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