Enthusiasm Leak
Theme of the Week: Endurance Test
Neal Plantinga
Monday, October 31, 2005
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Don't get tired of doing what is good … For we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time (Galatians 6:9). Bonus Reading: Matthew 24:45-51
On the first good day of spring, you get into the spirit of car washing. You wash and dry it with a chamois. You vacuum it out, take some cleaner to the bug spots, and start waxing and polishing. This is going so well that you see yourself moving on to clean out the garage and mow the lawn.
But then, as you wax and whistle, your back starts to ache, your right arm to feel sore. Your whistling slides into a slower rhythm and shifts into a minor key. Perhaps you'd better leave the lawn for another day. The garage can wait too, you guess. Doing this car is a big enough job all by itself. Well, leave the rest of the car for next Saturday too. Now find a hammock!
The sense of adventure and the rush of enthusiasm for doing good in the name of Christ can turn into a sinking sense of futility when others don't notice or care. We've also felt a pain in the neck and all the adventure running off in sweat. Galatians 6:9 is a word for us spent-out Christians who've served until we can't make one more phone call: we'll reap the fruit of the Spirit in a life that never ends—if we don't give up.
—Neal Plantinga in Beyond Doubt
My Response: A good cause for which my initial motivation is growing thin is …
Adapted from Beyond Doubt (Eerdmans, 2002) by permission.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross. Give me the stamina to be a finisher.
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