Thursday, December 20, 2001

REWARDS

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple--truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward." Matthew 10:40-42

Many Christians come to the Church as idealists. We want to do great things for God. We want to save the world, put an end to violence and war, teach people to love one another.

Then we get to work. We find that every job, no matter how big, starts small. We find ourselves, not striving gloriously in the front lines of a huge crowd of Workers for World Peace, but debating heatedly with a few people about one single action: Is it politically astute to hold a march or a demonstration, or should we picket or boycott? We find out that the major international corporation we are working against employs the people next door, who resent your yard sign, and say so repeatedly. We learn that parents just want good day care, and are a little leery of our day care because we say it's a Christian Day Care. We learn to avoid "hot button" topics when we're working ecumenically.

It's not that the work is hard, it's that it's daily work, and the details are boring.
It's not that the hours are long, it's that the hours are spent in debating rather than acting.
It's not that the goal is too far away; it's that the steps from here to there have to be picked through the debris of earlier treks in the same direction.

After awhile, we begin to realize that we are not the first ones to try to change the world, and the battle-stories of those long in the fight begin to sound like what happened to us, just yesterday. We begin to notice that for every step forward, there is a sidestep or a backward step. We begin to think to ourselves, "This is not working." But we can't imagine a new approach; something that will work better than everything else that has been tried.

This is the time when it is really a good idea to take some time off to do something else, something that will allow you to see accomplishment in a short period of time. Take up a hobby in which you exercise creativity. Allow yourself to buy the proper tools, be it good paints and decent brushes, or some strings of beads to make a matched set of jewelry, or something as simple as a recorder to play. Don't turn it into work. You don't have to be able to throw a matched set of pots. Buy the green ware and paint it and let the shop owner fire it for you. Don't make your hobby as difficult as the rest of your life. Pick something easy. This is supposed to be a break, a reward for all your hard work!

Just as it's never too late for a happy childhood, it's never too late to reward yourself for all your hard work. And you may even find that God is peering over your shoulder admiring your accomplishments.

Sandra Herrmann

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