Drudgery or Service??

What is the difference between simple drudgery and joyful service? The difference became apparent to me recently.

A few weeks ago, we had a group of men down from Casper for a weekend retreat. One of the activities we offered was for them to try our climbing wall and zip line. After I had unhooked the same guy from the zip line for the 3rd or 4th time, he commented that it must be pretty boring doing that all of the time. I didn’t say so to him but I have to confess that I was thinking, haven’t you guys had enough yet?

Then I was reminded of a kid's camp we had a few weeks prior to that. It was 45 kids from the 4th and 5th grade classes of one of the schools here in Laramie. We were running the climbing wall and zip line for them too and my job was to put a climbing harness on the kids and when they came back from the zip line, take the harness off and put it on the next kid. For about 4 hours that day it was put a harness on, take a harness off, repeat.
 


What stuck with me was one boy who was wearing mud boots which aren’t the best for climbing in. I asked him how high he thought he could climb and he said he wanted to go on the zip line but didn’t know how far up the wall he could get but that he was going to try. I asked if he had ever seen the movie “Facing the Giants” and he said no. So I told him about the scene where the coach made Brock do the death crawl blindfolded with a kid on his back and encouraged, cajoled, harangued him until he had gone the whole length of the field. I told this kid that I wanted him to go as far up the wall as he could then go a little farther. In short, we were able to talk him to the top of the climbing wall and he then rode the zip line down. When he came back to me to have his harness taken off, this kid who was around 4 foot tall was wearing a 6 foot smile. That is what our ministry is about and what turns what could be drudgery into joyful service.

Since we weren’t able to openly talk about spiritual things with those kids, my prayer is that my example from the movie prompted him to go home and watch it with his family. Remembering that smile and seeing other people’s joy in their experiences at Table in the Wilderness is one of the many rewards we receive for making the huge changes in our lives and following God on this faith journey.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.~~ Colossians 3:17 (NIV)


Waldo