Enjoying the toil

Mexico is just around the corner for my youth group and our big dinner fundraiser is tomorrow night. The 3 weeks before this fundraiser always get very hectic - there's always another business to visit for a donation or someone to call and follow up with. Planning and shopping for decorations and what not can become draining. It's in this exciting season of ministry and trip-planning that I easily get drained from the joy of working.

Yet this morning I was reminded that it is a gift of God to take pleasure in all my toil. Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 says "I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil - this is God's gift to man." It is God's gift that I should take pleasure in all I do? Yes, it is - it is the way God designed the universe to work.

Even though all work carries along with it the curse and effects of the fall, people who know God are able to still enjoy the process of their work and the fruit of its labor. Sometimes the "fruit" is hard to measure for me because it's ministry with teenagers and I can't be certain just what fruit is coming from it. But I trust that God is bearing fruit and planting seeds in these students' lives and I take joy in watching it happen. God always provides the $1000's needed for the trip and always provides a rich spiritual experience on the trip. I can take joy in trusting God through this process and, while it is stressful, can do this event with a smile on my face.