Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” 

The same holds true for laboring in the Kingdom of God: We cannot be short-sighted when working for the Lord, because we won’t last. We will become weary, and eventually forget why we’re doing it in the first place. We must remember, it’s all about an eternal reward, one that will surpass all the follies of this present life. 

As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, we must not focus on “wood collecting only” when building a ship, rather we must long for the end result of riding in the endless sea. There’s no greater joy than to work in God’s Kingdom, but sometimes we tend to forget what it’s all about, and we can become jaded, bitter, weary, or simply apathetic. We must keep the fire stirred in our hearts, and remember we are all striving for a Crown that won’t fade. We must remember, souls are the only thing we can take with us to Heaven: Nothing else! Our vision must be focused on the glory beyond the horizon that keeps us going when the disappointments, losses, and seeming failures threaten to kill our zeal for kingdom-building. 

I end with an excerpt from an article I recently read: “If we want to stay in hard places for the sake of God’s kingdom, our hearts need to be captivated by the immensity of God and His redemptive purposes in the world. Only that breathtaking vision can hold us in contexts of immense pain and seeming hopelessness.” 

Galatians 6:9 (KJV) And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Peter 2:15 (KJV) For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

1 Peter 4:19 (KJV) Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.