Has anything been done? No one can justify the doing of nothing. It’s best not to respond to the question if nothing’s been done, and your answer would have to be nothing. Just say nothing. Don’t say that in response to the question. Just say nothing. Nothing at all. I’m not quoting what you might or could say. Just say no thing.
There are times we determine by our own honest evaluation of our actions that we’ve accomplished nothing when really we’ve done a lot. We’ve constructed and manipulated and created and communicated and congregated and represented and calculated and still accomplished nothing.
Well, how can this be? We’ve been in motion to bring about what we or others we trust have formulated to be a worthy end to our hard work. What is to be the result of our hard work? What is the measurable end? What do we want to accomplish? Even when we’ve determined what the goal is, it still may amount to nothing.
Jesus speaks in John 15 one of the best and, I believe to be, important statements in the gospels.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
— John 15: 5
This solves the issue of accomplishing nothing. If you have the nagging persistence that you’re accomplishing nothing in this life, you may not be. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing. The nagging from within may be a real tug that is drawing you into a realization that Jesus wants all of you.
I’ve seen too much in the church done because we believed we had to do something and it amounted to nothing.
In Mark 4, Jesus teaches from a parable that he describes as the parable from which we can understand all parables. The sower sows the Word (Mk. 4: 1-20). Two of the places where the seeds have fallen are places where the seed/the Word does germinate and plants grow, but they either wither or are choked to death. I look at these two pieces of ground and I’m reminded of the church. Ooo, such joy and excitement in the beginning, but then troubles, persecutions, cares of this world cause the new born plants to wither or suffocate. In the church, we say, “That’s ok. Good try.” But we never change the ground so that the next seed can find a good place from which to grow AND PRODUCE A HARVEST! The harvest is the thing! The little green shoot isn’t the thing. Neither is the pretty blossom on the stem the thing. The fruit is the thing. The crop is the thing. The harvest is the thing!
You and I can do nothing in our faith and be content with it because we’ve heard enough of our contemporaries tell us, “Good try.” We think its enough to try. We think its enough to calculate and congregate and assume our heavenly Father is content with our failures. You and I can do nothing. Often enough, we do nothing. We do nothing because we do not remain in him. We do nothing because our soil is shallow or it’s full of weeds. When there is a degree of growth, it’s choked or it withers, and we, again, do nothing. This is not acceptable.
Much fruit must come from us, and there must be a harvest from the seeds planted in our lives. The fruit and harvest that’s valuable is that which heaven cherishes and reflects the hand and the will of the Father.
Stop doing nothing.
Psalm 102 in The Message 