When It Seems Your Life Is Going Nowhere
The future where the significance of your life’s work, which may seem like only a leaf or two, will be revealed as an essential part of the tree that God will place right in the middle of his City — the great Tree of Life, which will be for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).
Although it is sometimes hard to believe that your work, done for God’s glory, has enduring significance, it absolutely does.
Although it is sometimes hard to believe that your work, done for God’s glory, has enduring significance, it absolutely does.
In their book, Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf do a tremendous job of explaining the significance of Niggle’s leaf and how it relates to our present stories:
There really is a tree. Whatever you are seeking in your work—the city of justice and peace, the world of brilliance and beauty, the story, the order, the healing, it is there. There is a God, there is a future healed world that He will bring about and your work is showing it (in part) to others. Your work will only be partially successful on your best days, in bringing that world about. But inevitably, that whole tree that you see—the beauty, the harmony, justice, comfort, joy and community—will come to fruition. If you know all this, you will not be despondent that you can only get a leaf or two out of this life. You will work with satisfaction and joy.
These comments help me see that my work, whether I recognize it or not — whether anyone else recognizes it or not — fits in God’s overarching plan.
Scripture promises, “No eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). It also promises that the good work he has begun in us, every good work — whether it be the work of becoming more like Jesus in our character, or the work of painting just a leaf when we dream of a tree — will be completed. The God who is Creator and Restorer and Architect and Builder of his great city — will be faithful to complete that work (Philippians 1:6). And as he completes that work, he will also look toward us through the finished work of Jesus and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).
The work you do now will go on into eternity.
[written by Scott Sauls]
There really is a tree. Whatever you are seeking in your work—the city of justice and peace, the world of brilliance and beauty, the story, the order, the healing, it is there. There is a God, there is a future healed world that He will bring about and your work is showing it (in part) to others. Your work will only be partially successful on your best days, in bringing that world about. But inevitably, that whole tree that you see—the beauty, the harmony, justice, comfort, joy and community—will come to fruition. If you know all this, you will not be despondent that you can only get a leaf or two out of this life. You will work with satisfaction and joy.
These comments help me see that my work, whether I recognize it or not — whether anyone else recognizes it or not — fits in God’s overarching plan.
Scripture promises, “No eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). It also promises that the good work he has begun in us, every good work — whether it be the work of becoming more like Jesus in our character, or the work of painting just a leaf when we dream of a tree — will be completed. The God who is Creator and Restorer and Architect and Builder of his great city — will be faithful to complete that work (Philippians 1:6). And as he completes that work, he will also look toward us through the finished work of Jesus and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).
The work you do now will go on into eternity.
[written by Scott Sauls]
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