What Are You Doing?

Once upon a time, a traveler came across three stone-cutters and asked them what they were doing.

The first replied saying that he was the most miserable person on Earth and that he has the hardest job in the world. "Every day I have to move around huge stones make a living, which is barely enough to eat." The traveler gave him a coin and continued walking.

The second one did not complain and was focused on his work. When the traveler asked him what he was doing, the stone-cutter replied, "I'm earning a living by doing the best job of stone-cutting in the entire county. Although the work is hard, I'm satisfied with what I do and I earn enough to feed my family." The traveler praised him, gave him a coin and went on.

When the traveler met the third stone-cutter, he noticed that the stone-cutter had sweat and dust on him but he looked happy and was singing a cheerful song. The traveler was astonished and asked, "What are you doing?" The stone-cutter looked up and with a visionary gleam in his eye and said, "Can't you see? I'm building a cathedral."

This parable of the stone-cutters is one that has been used in our last two Central American Pastors' Conferences to give perspective on building the Kingdom of God. I'm including it here today, mostly as a reminder to myself. 

Missionaries are expected to report to hundreds even thousands of people on their work (which absolutely should be expected). For many missionaries (myself included), this creates a feeling that they need to prove themselves worthy.

There is great temptation to tell you:

How hard I am working.

How good I am at my work.

How much I have accomplished.

...I...I...I.

It becomes very ME focused.

If we have true perspective on the cathedral and our work, we know that God is building His cathedral (His Kingdom). We are under-qualified for the task but privileged to be hired. How much more glory does God receive by building something so amazing using such ordinary workers?

-Adam Cain

Note: The ability to save blogs as drafts is a beautiful thing in a chaotic season of life.  I was just peeking back through some of these lonely drafts and thought my cute husband's wise words were the kind that are pertinent every day for all "professions."  Let God be the one who gets the glory in all circumstances!