Do Not Give Up

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9 ESV)

This problem is too big. It’s too complicated. I don’t even know where to begin.

What’s the point? My meager efforts are just that—meager. I can’t make much of a difference.

I’ve made so many mistakes and contributed to the problem in so many ways. I can’t undo this damage. Why pretend . . . and why try?

These are some honest thoughts I’ve had about leaning into a lifestyle of creation care and battling against Earth degradation and climate change.

I find it even more discouraging to see (from my point of view) so few Christians involved in this kind of work. The Earth—God’s creation—seems to be cared for in theory, but practically speaking, I haven’t seen many Christians or churches getting involved in reducing waste, curbing greed and materialism, or bringing hope to our most vulnerable communities around the globe.

This is not to say that I have all the answers or that I am patting myself on the back for “getting it done.” I’m learning and trying ... but I’m also well aware that I have much more to learn, much more in my life that needs to change, and much farther down the road of becoming a creation steward to go.

However, I think it’s important when you’re doing the kind of work that can easily become discouraging to write these honest thoughts down and combat them with positive reframing. More important than that, they need to be reframed within the truths of God’s Word.

Sometimes the gray, the dim—an overcast of discouragement or gloom—simply allows what's beautiful to shine.

Did Paul Battle Discouragement Too?

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul was writing to a community of new Christians who were surrounded by “Judaizers.” These were people who, meaning well and believing they were right to do so, insisted the neophytes adopt Jewish customs and laws as part of their newly acquired faith. Paul, on the other hand, wanted to minimize outside influence on Christianity—even the influence of something he had long believed in and recently persecuted others for abandoning.

I wonder if, for Paul, this battle against Judaizers felt akin to how a Christian might feel battling creation carelessness today: This problem is too big—I don’t even know where to begin . . . Not to mention, I’ve made so many mistakes and contributed to the problem in so many ways . . . What’s the point? What can I do? Why try?

I wonder if this might be why he wrote to the Galatian Christians: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

For Those Feeling Discouraged Today

If you are feeling overwhelmed, if you are feeling like your efforts don’t matter because the need is too great and your contributions are too small, I hope you will take Paul’s words to heart, as I am. Whatever the work, when it’s the work God has put on your heart to do, know two things:

1. Your efforts matter because “in due season, we will reap, if we do not give up.” It may not be tomorrow, it may even be in your lifetime, but make no mistake, your efforts will add up and touch others and combine with the efforts of others, and at the right time, those seeds of change will bear fruit.

2. You are not working alone. In Paul’s letter, he used the pronoun “we” because he’s reminding Christians that we ought to work together. In fact, other verses around Galatians 6:9 encourage Christians to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” and to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (vv. 2, 10).

So Christians ought to work together, supporting each other in the work of Christ.

However, in those moments when it feels like even the Christian community isn’t with you—and this may happen for a variety of reasons: maybe it simply feels like others aren’t with you because they’re not vocal about their support, or maybe you aren’t aware of others’ work because it’s still in seed form and buried in the soil of contemplation and prayer, or maybe you do lack support because God is allowing you a season of testing to learn to rely solely on Him—whatever the reason, in those moments, you still are not alone.

“And behold, I am with you always,” Jesus said, “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

May our prayer then be “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

In reality, our efforts are meager. But when combined with Christ and when prayerfully joined with the work of the Church, our efforts plant seeds that yield far beyond anything we could have asked for or imagined. (See Mark 4:20.) So whatever discouragement you might feel today, in the words of Paul, let me encourage you (and myself) to “not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” 💛