“THE REST”

^“Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord…” (Colossians 3:23 The Living Bible)

It was a very hot summer day, the thermometer racing towards its highest possible reading. A father had just finished cutting the front lawn at his home when his son came outside to check to see if the mailman had delivered any mail. He was about to go back inside the house where the air condition was keeping the house so cool that you had to wear a sweater or light jacket. Before the son could open the door, the father asked the son to mow the back yard. The son looks at his father and asks, “Now?” The father calmly, but with authority, says, “Right now.” The son had no further questions. He obediently took the lawnmower and headed toward the large back yard. I guess I should tell you that the backyard was over two times bigger than the front yard. But in spite of that fact, the son did not utter a complaint.

After mowing half the yard, the son’s shirt was soaking wet. He turned off the lawnmower and went inside to get a dry shirt. The dad asks, “Are you close to done?” The son reports on his progress, “No, half of the yard still needs to be mowed.” Boldly he asks the father, “Can you finish the rest?”  The father just looks at his son. His silence should have served as a sufficient answer. Yet the son must have thought that the father’s non-verbal response was not a satisfactory answer. So, he resorts to some church talk trying to play on the father’s heart and get him to finish the backyard. He says to the father, “Do you remember the song that the choir sang as they proceeded to the choir stand? It had these words, ‘All you have to do is take one step and He will do the rest. And when they said, “He,” the son continues, they were referring to our Father in heaven.’ The dad is patiently listening to his son as he is presenting his argument like a lawyer in the courtroom. The son goes on to say, “Shouldn’t you be like the Father and help me by doing the rest?” The father, holding back his laughter says, “I have helped you, by giving you a break and letting you express yourself. Nevertheless, I will help you even more.” The smile on the son’s face is all you could see of his facial features. But his smile was a little premature. The father was not finished. The dad goes on to say, “I will ask the Father in heaven to give you the strength to persevere and do what you have been asked to do. Furthermore, I will help you when the clean-up time comes to make sure everything is in order. That’s when I will do the rest” The son, his face in an emotionless state, goes back to continue mowing the yard.

There is a lesson for you and me in the above story. When our Heavenly Father asks us to do something, we must do it until we are finished, out of obedience. He will give us the strength to sustain us, and He will do “the rest.” What “the rest” is, well that is entirely up to our sovereign God to decide. In our lives, “the rest” might be be a lesson in obedience or “the rest” might be a lesson in perseverance. “The rest” could possibly be coming to the conclusion that when we ask our Father, He may not come when we want Him to, but when He does, He is right on time. “The rest” might not come until we realize that the Lord will always do His part. “The rest” might be re-energizing our spiritual muscles that will help us remember that we should hold our peace until the Lord sees that it is time to step in and prove that He is a very present help in the time of trouble. What is the Lord saying to you this morning about “the rest?” Be blessed!

“On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’” (Joshua 6:15-17 NIV) “When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.” (Joshua 7:20 NIV)

Committed to the climb,

Mark L. King