Because I am a freelance minister (my self-appointed title), I don't tend to get a lot of feedback about what I'm doing, and at times I have felt like I don't have much to show for the time and energy I have expended through the years. I don't really feel discouraged - I just wonder what God has been doing through my life, particularly in my post-seminary days. Will there be lasting fruit?
But God has been gracious to me in recent days and has given me a few glimpses into the fruit of my labor. In the process of reorganizing my files, I realized just how many Bible studies, commentaries, devotions, and articles I have written in recent years. In particular, I noted the volume of material I had produced exclusively for my church's Student Ministry. At Sunday School and in the Monday afternoon Bible studies that I lead in my home, I have noticed that several seniors still have devotions that I had written for various retreats and camps squirreled away in their Bibles. As we study God's Word together in my home and at church, students ask questions that demonstrate my efforts haven't been in vain: Wasn't this one of our memory verses at camp? Didn't we have a devotion about this passage on the Labor Day Retreat? We've studied this before, haven't we? Remember when I asked you about this passage and you said . . .
"Persevere in the humility of untitled ministry," Dr. Molly Marshall advised. And so I press on.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9).
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I have been cleaning out a few notebooks at my house, and my house could serve as a branch of the Tambi B. Swiney library. If you become President, I'll be glad to give tours of the wing of your library where they display your writings.....and the photos of you from summer camp date night in years past.
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