The Good We May Never See
Today’s devotional
Some kindness reaches us long after the person who offered it has left our lives. A patient explanation, a welcome, or a faithful example may return to memory years later. Such experiences remind us how little of another person’s life is visible while we are participating in it.
Galatians places the encouragement to continue doing good within life in the Spirit. The surrounding passage concerns shared burdens, responsible conduct, and generosity. Its promised harvest has an eternal horizon. Paul is not guaranteeing that every act of service will return a report of success to the person who offered it.
Planting and watering also belong within work larger than either servant. Some of us enter a situation after others have given years of care. We can receive their contribution with gratitude rather than erase it to make the work feel like our own. Others may continue after us, bringing gifts the next season requires.
This perspective asks something of our need for recognition. We may have contributed faithfully without becoming the person someone remembers first. We may never learn what an ordinary act meant. Love can remain attentive to whether it is helpful while releasing the demand to receive a complete account of its influence.
Think of someone whose care helped form your life. Give thanks, and express that gratitude if appropriate. Then consider the person within reach today. What good can you offer without requiring acknowledgment as its reward? Entrusting unseen consequences to God can return your attention to the neighbor who is actually here, where a patient and responsible response is still possible.
Adapted from Chapter 11: The Good We May Never See in The Courage to Continue by Dr. R. C. Titus.
Read the Scripture
Open each passage and read slowly. Notice what these words reveal about God and the life before you.
Galatians 6:6-10 · WEBU
6But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches.
7Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
8For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
9Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we don’t give up.
10So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 · WEBU
6I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
7So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
Pause and respond
For reflection
Where am I waiting for acknowledgment before I allow myself to believe that an act of care was worth offering?
A practice for today
Give thanks for one person whose contribution you received, whether or not they knew its effect. Then offer one appropriate act of care today without asking for a report of its impact.
A prayer
God of the larger harvest, thank you for the care that reached me through others. Help me honor those who came before and welcome those who will continue after me. Free my attention for the good within reach, trusting you with the influence I may never see. Amen.
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