Is it worth it?

There was a short discussion just now during my HopeSem class on serving the church. We normally would ask when would be the right time to serve. I used to ask that question. I remember I told my follow uppers seven years back that I will consider where to serve after my water baptism. In today's context, it was pretty impressive (in human's eyes) since my water baptism happened three months after I received Christ.

But when is the right time? Is there a right time for anyone at any point of time?

When do we start serving the church?

When do we start serving God?

Do our services in God depend on our circumstances and situations?

I recently attended a 'self-help' programme which I walked out half way, due to the incompatibility in theology and philosophy behind that programme and my own beliefs. One thing that I sort of picked up and made quite a lot of sense to me is this: do we give what it takes to bring ourselves to where we want to be? This is a very self-centric point of view, but similar points can be made to our services to God - are we willing to give what it takes to serve the church?

As I have implied, the general responses for such questions can be circumstantial. As I serve in YG, I believe that this belief has slowly creeped in my system as well. Not that I serve based on my circumstances but I start to judge people's capability and capacity to serve based on the circumstances they are facing.

But is that the right question? Are we willing to give what it takes to serve the church?

And we forgot to ask one important question: is the church of Jesus Christ worth building? The answer to this question determines the consistency of our responses to the rest of the questions. Simply put it, if the church of Jesus Christ is worth building, then one thing is for sure - we start building the church regardless of our circumstances because we understand the implication behind the decision. If the question is no, then our willingness to serve the church may be called into question.

This reflection is a deeply personal one, simply because I know I have given the past seven years to the building of the church - especially the local community that God has placed me in. I need to be able to answer this question - is the church of Jesus Christ worth building - cos if I don't, I would have wasted the best part of my past seven years.

I have to admit that in the beginning, an assurance of things to come has encouraged to serve. For those who know me long enough, Matthew 6:33 (But seek first His Kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well) has been my ministry verse for a very long time. Further biblical reflections have concluded that this may not be a very correct verse to use but the promises were real to me during my formative years. I think I shared before in this blog that as I devote time to serve the church, I have never needed to worry about my grades and finances. The reason for this, I suspect, was because God knew me and intended for me to serve wholeheartedly for the local community that He has placed me in. That's the reason why often the grades I have gotten does not match the effort I seem to put in, as compared to others, so that I don't need to spend too much time studying and I can devote my time in serving the people. I have reached a point in life when I no longer think that I am smart and it is only be God's grace that I have come to be known as such, if any thinks I am smart. Nonetheless this is just a speculation, and my point is that in my early years, I have seen God's blessing being real in my life as I really serve and build His church.

But as I grow in maturity, I ask myself if the same does hold true to my current stage. The same pattern seems to recur, as God continues to bless me in my workplace with higher than expected performance, even when I make the conscious decision not to follow the norm and do work after office hour and not staying beyond my knock off timing. Yet it seems that the challenges in ministry have suggested that my effort in building church does not reap the 'blessings' from the people I have tried to build proportionately. By saying this, I do not mean to say that these people equate to the 'these people' (an internal joke when my church was preaching on the book of Haggai). What I am saying, and I am sure a lot of my fellow LGLs would agree, is that we put in a lot of time in serving and building our groups, but sometimes we do not seem to reap the fruits that commensurate with our effort. And hence the question comes in - is the church of Jesus Christ worth building?

As I was reflecting on my own ministry verse sometimes back, I realised that there is a cost in serving God. There is a cost in obeying the word of God and follow His ways. And gradually, Acts 20:24 began to make sense to me, that I consider my life worth nothing with my only aim to finish the race and complete the task that He has given me - to testify the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was then that John 4:34 began to make sense to me, that my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

Why?

My answer is this, if Christ sees us important enough to die for us on the cross, so that by His blood and through His resurrection, we are able to be reconciled with God to be the Body of Christ, then the Body of Christ is important enough for us to build. The church of Jesus Christ is thus worth every sacrifice and cost that we pay. Because if it is not, we will be better off living our lives somewhere else.