I don’t want to get to heaven and find out the work I did was hay and straw that just burns up, but work that lasts and that made a meaningful difference in others’ lives.
I wonder if the work I’ve been doing lately is “straw” – organizing homeschool logs into plastic tubs and putting over 1000 family pics into new photo albums.
Or if I’m doing these things as busy work to just avoid my business because I feel uninspired lately. (I think the real reason is because I don’t respond well to chaos and organizing feels so good!)
Speakers, writers, artists, musicians must have inspiration to do creative work. Last night Leah told me that there are sometimes that she doesn’t practice her violin because she just doesn’t “feel it.”
Leah’s doing great in her lessons by the way; her violin instructor Emily has her doing exercises now to prepare her for a book that teaches with the Suzuki method.
“I want to make good citizens. If a child hears fine music from the day of his birth and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline and endurance. He gets a beautiful heart.”—Shin’ichi Suzuki
Do I have a beautiful heart? Do you?
Is your work beautiful and lasting, or hay and straw that are going to burn up?
Does your work have value? Will you receive God’s reward for it?
“For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.” ~ 1 Corinthians 3: 9-15, NLT
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