NOTHING IS EVER IN VAIN
“Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, Yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God.” ~ Isaiah 49:4
It’s so easy to say “yes” to something that we’re sure is going to yield success. We live in a results-driven world, where almost every decision is made based on carefully calculated risks that come down to a percentage here or a dollar there; this many pros versus this many cons; this much gain against this much loss. We are obsessed with the “sure thing.” Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “sure thing.” There loom in every moment, circumstances beyond our control that can disrupt any judiciously made plan, and when this occurs, the human instinct to feel discouraged and disheartened after the hardest fought effort is imminent. Hard work with no tangible results can be, quite honestly, painful.
It’s been over a year since I quit my corporate job, and my dreams and plans for this second half of life weren’t necessarily grand, but they were, I failed to foresee, new. Everything has felt new to me – not only being a photographer full-time, but being a small business owner, having to work with an irregular income, learning about software I’d never used, doing literally everything on my own. Long hours have been spent learning things I didn’t know I had to learn, discovering information I never knew to ask about, all the while trying to do the actual work that I quit my old job for in the first place. My prayers of late have been, “Lord, it’s been over a year – when will I know what I’m doing?!”
We've all been there before, where we've worked hard towards a goal, only to feel like we're not making any progress, and that all of our efforts have been wasted. But this verse offers a powerful reminder that our reward is not always something we can see or measure in the physical world. Sometimes, the fruits of our labor are most times internal, unseen and felt by no one else but us, and that ultimately, our reward is with God, who sees and values our efforts even if others do not, including ourselves.
And in this labor and all our efforts, is our call to continuing faith and trust in, not our plan, but God's. We may not always understand why things are happening the way they are, and perhaps our hopelessness takes over for a while, but we must remember our trust in God and His purpose and plan for our lives. Our efforts are never in vain.
Anna Gonda