Never
Wasted
By Richard
Maffeo
I know
your deeds and your toil and your
perseverance
. . . (Revelation 2:2)
Sacrifice.
No one knows how its claws can tear the soul like
the one who for decades gave up a dream, a life, a goal, a purpose . . . .
Given up.
Thirty. Forty. Years.
Given up to walk instead the walk He charted, only
to find at the end of the course what seems ashes and emptiness and loneliness.
The hope of something better, the prayers for something precious, the yearning
for something beautiful disappear like wisps of smoke in the wind, and the voice
on the shoulder taunts:
“What could have been if you’d walked the road you
gave up?”
Oh! But like the child who gave his few fish to Jesus
and the Lord fed thousands; Like the widow who gave her last pennies to God, and
whose story has encouraged millions across the millennia, nothing sacrificed to
Jesus is ever useless. No offering ever returns empty. No life or years, no
fish or coin – nothing is ever a waste when given to Christ.
He promised it – and He still promises it:
Be
steadfast. Immovable. Abounding always in the work of the Lord, because your
labor, your sacrifice, your purpose,
and
perseverance is not now, nor has been, nor will ever be in vain when done for, and
offered to, the Lord.*
*see 1 Corinthians 15:58
2 comments:
We have to come to grips that whatever we fantasize about what might have been is simply vanity. I love what you write here. Nothing is wasted when we give all to God and let Him determine the outcome. St. Therese of Lisieux is the perfect example of this. But, we have to keep reminding ourselves, don't we?
Yes, which is why I write some of what I do. My words serve to remind me again and again.
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