Worth All The Effort

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t stood 363 feet tall and weighed 6.2 million pounds fully loaded and when it blasted off from its launch pad, it shook the ground for miles around.  This was the Saturn V launch vehicle, the most powerful rocket ever built.  As a small boy, I watched every single Saturn V that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) launched into space.  One of my fondest memories as a five-year-old child was seeing Neil Armstrong place his foot on the surface of the moon.  That is something I will never forget.

As I grew older and began to understand more about how rockets worked, I was amazed at the tremendous amount of energy required to place a rocket into orbit.  The vehicles that launched men to the moon began as 363-foot rockets but what returned was extremely small and would easily fit in the middle of your living room floor.  It took thousands of hours of planning time, thousands of hours of training time, thousands of hours of assembly time, and millions of hours of worry as people all over the world watched those rockets take off, headed for the moon.

As the Saturn V launched, it relied on its booster stage to lift it into the upper atmosphere.  That stage was jettisoned and the second stage placed it into earth orbit.  The third stage carried the men to the moon and finally the small command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.  All that effort to build this huge machine only to get a small capsule back; the larger stages worked so the smaller capsule could complete its mission.  At first, it seemed that all those pieces had been wasted but in the end, all of them were necessary to complete the lunar missions.

In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul addressed this same idea of expending great effort in order to achieve an established goal.  Paul wasn’t interested in putting men on the moon.  His interest wasn’t outer space; his goal was inner space, the heart of man.  Paul knew what it was like to work long and hard in Christ’s service.  He knew what it was like to be misunderstood, persecuted, rejected, and hated.  He knew what it was like to work with his whole being to the point of physical, mental, and spiritual exhaustion.  Yet, Paul never gave up, he never lost sight of his goal, and he never wavered in his determination to preach the gospel to the world around him.

That is why he writes the following admonition in Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Paul was encouraging his readers to show kindness and compassion to all those around them, especially their fellow believers.  He knew that when the going gets really tough, people often abandon the cause.  He did not want this to happen.  Paul knew that to love others with the love of Christ is always hard, but he also knew that it brought the greatest reward.

Today you may feel like the first stage of the rocket mentioned earlier.  It may seem to you that you are giving all you have and it appears you are making very little progress.  You feel as if no one appreciates you or loves you because no one is returning your love and kindness.  So often you just want to cave in and give up.  

Hold steady my fellow believer because Paul does not leave us without hope.  He says that we will reap a harvest and we will receive a reward if we do not give up and lose heart.  I want you to know that I am praying for all of you who read this today.  My prayer is that you will not give up, that you will not give in, and that you will not abandon the cause of Christ when the going gets tough.  It is just at such a time that winning the battle is within reach.  I pray today that our Heavenly Father will give you the strength you need to love those around you and to be a source of strength and encouragement, not only to them, but to the believers around you as well.  Hang in there because the effort we expend today will reap wonderful rewards for the kingdom of God! We have His word on it!