Faithful Saints

Is it worth it? She didn’t actually ask me that question, but it was the underlying tone in her discouragement. I could hear it her in the words she used. This teacher who was up to her neck and feeling like it wasn’t panning out how she hoped.

For anyone working in ministry, teaching children, leading a Bible study or preaching at a small church…these sentiments have likely been on your radar at one time or another. There are plenty of unseen roles in life that often leave us wondering if we are making a difference. If our effort really matters.

Her words were honest. Raw. Real. And somewhere in my soul, they struck a chord. How many times I have felt those same emotions, because I care. People who feel these things generally feel them because they really love those they are ministering to. They just wish they could SEE the progress. See the fruit. See the difference.

A mother wondering if her teenagers really see the sacrifice she’s been making for their whole lives…including sleepless nights and wearing spit up for the first year of their lives. A preacher wishing his congregation would show some life change after years of teaching the Word. A teacher wondering if she will ever know how the little kids will turn out as adults while she’s currently helping them learn to read. For me, I’ve spoken in women’s prisons and talked to ladies one-on-one and wondered if I’ll ever see them again and hear if they’ve made lasting life changes for Jesus.

There are hard days. Days when everything we do feels like an uphill climb with no positive results on the horizon.

Does it matter?

Is this worth it?

The words took me back to a time I hadn’t thought about in years. My 5^th-6^th grade Sunday school teacher, Mary Smalley. She was old even then in the late 1990s. Beautiful white hair. She was a short lady with a gentle spirit and soft voice. What made her keep teaching girls for YEARS AND YEARS? I’m not sure the actual numbers of years she taught that age group of girls, but I know it was way up there…like DECADES and DECADES.

Let that just sink in. 5^th-6^th grade girls aren’t an easy demographic. I don’t care if they are church girls. They are hard work. They have identity issues and don’t listen well. They are more concerned about their looks and how they fit in than being a Biblical theologian. But deep in their souls, whether they know it or not yet, they desperately need the Jesus Who can save and redeem.

Does it really matter? Do those teachers really make a difference?

I can imagine Mrs. Smalley felt the same way. Years and years of teaching fifth and sixth grade girls who didn’t pay attention. Didn’t give her respect. Didn’t act like they cared. For all the lessons she taught- I can’t remember one. But I knew two things- she loved Jesus and she loved us. She had to. Why else would she keep doing it?

In a world where 10% of church members do 90% of the work, Sunday School teachers are a meager bunch. A small group doing eternal things. Faithful saints like Mary Smalley.

I think about her sometimes and wish I could tell her now the impact it made on shy 6th grade me…her faithfulness made a difference. And I’m reminded of it on days that I might want to quit ministry myself. There are days it’s tough. Living in an entitled world that doesn’t seem to see you. But Jesus does. And there might be one shy girl that notices. She doesn’t say it now. Yet deep inside, she is storing away the moments of love and being present that you are gifting her. She might be the one who goes and does this same thing for scores of others one day. Because you were faithful today.

When I was about 20 years old, I wrote Mary Smalley a letter telling her how grateful I was for her investment in my life. At the time, I wasn’t in full-time ministry like I am now…my fruit wasn’t in yet…but I was grateful for her time and effort. She later told me in all her decades of teaching Sunday School, no one had every come back and thanked her.

You may be someone like Mary Smalley. Someone who faithfully invests in others and have no one thanking you. Your heart wonders…does this really matter? Am I making a difference?

Let me be the voice whispering the truth to your heart in moments of discouragement: YES. Your faithfulness matters. Like daffodils coming up again and again in the spring, you are there. Present. Faithful. Trustworthy. The steady in someone else’s unstable life. Your investment matters.

And somewhere out there, though she is silent now, she is watching. Waiting. Soaking in the love and Word you are pouring in. One day she will minister to others that you’ll never touch but you are invested in because today you showed up. Today you are faithful. Today you love when it’s not easy.

Don’t stop, friend. Eternity will be different because of you.