“That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test everyone’s work to show what sort of work it was. If the building that has been put on the foundation still stands, the builder will get a reward. But if the building is burned up, the builder will suffer loss. The builder will be saved, but it will be as one who escaped from a fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:11-12

We had been at the office of our accountant and signed our annual tax papers. Whew! Another year was taken care of.  As we were putting the past  year’s boxes of papers away, we realized that we should get rid of the old financial and ministry boxes we had been saving.  After all, we really only needed to keep them for seven years and some were dated back longer than that.

So we carried the old plastic boxes into the garage.  And then I started sorting through all the papers.

As I went through each box, I thought, ‘Each one of these boxes represents one whole year of work, 365 days of buying and selling, investing, Real Estate papers from moving, ministry projects started and done, statistics and results of those projects and much more.’

I felt quite sad realizing that these plastic boxes contained the paper work for all we had done during those years. And now they were going into garbage bags and would be shredded or burned.

Then this wonderful quote came to me:

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,
If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.
C.T. Studd

That thought was very encouraging!  Our work was not all for nothing. On the day when God will judge our works, what really has eternal value will be much more than the papers that we burned. He knows how much of our work was done with eternity in our hearts and minds.

That same day, the Lord reminded me that even during these years when we are slowing down and our energy level is not what it used to be, we still need to make each day count for eternity.

We have a pile of ashes in our backyard now–where we burned papers from several years. Yes, a good lesson from plastic filing boxes. Make eternal values a priority.

Father, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Only what is done for Christ will last.   Although Marvin and I are slowing down let us do what counts for eternity every day. Amen.

Katherine Kehler
used by permission

Related articles:

Fireside Wisdom – by Gail Rodgers

Pillars of an Unshakable Life –  by Roy Lessin

Seizing Opportunities and Becoming a Work of Art – by Herb Buller

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