Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. Galatians 6:11
The farmer’s little boy was helping the threshing crew as they worked on the crop of oats. Somebody had to clear the chaff and straw away from the pulley that provided power from a tractor to the old threshing machine, to prevent it from causing problems. All day long, the little fellow stood there, fork in hand, tossing aside the chaff and straw. The thresher ran constantly, and when mealtime came, the workers ate in stages to keep the machine running. Nobody thought to give the little boy a break, so he remained at his post until evening, when the last of the grain was threshed, and the machine was shut down. Wearily, the lad shook the chaff off his clothing and made his way to the house. Discovering that his son had not eaten since breakfast, the father asked the boy why he hadn’t stopped for lunch. The boy replied, ‘Somebody had to keep the pulley clear’. That’s the kind of commitment that Paul shows in today’s text.
Paul had poor eyesight. It wasn’t easy for him to write letters; that’s why he almost always had somebody write what he dictated. But there was apparently nobody with him at this time to take his dictation. And Paul was burdened about the folks in Galatia, so he painfully and painstakingly wrote the letter himself. His poor eyesight forced him to write in a very large hand. He was willing to endure hardship and inconvenience to make sure the Christians received the message that the Holy Spirit instructed him to write.
Is the Lord’s work inconvenient for us sometimes? Is it inconvenient for us to help the Christians, or to do something necessary for the Assembly? Is it difficult for us sometimes to render assistance? Have we ever gone hungry so we could be where we needed to be? Has it cost us money and time to serve the Lord? Sometimes there is a price to pay for being faithful, and Paul shows us a good example of that.
What is our threshold of pain where we stop serving the Lord? What is the quota of self-sacrifice that we set for ourselves in serving the Lord’s people and the work of the Gospel? -Jim MacIntosh