Jesse is beautiful donkey. She has the job of pulling the old stone mill every day for a few years now. Every morning she is put into her position and then she starts walking round and round until her owner decides she has done enough for the day, when at the end of her shift, she is fed and lodged down for the night. The road she travels is the same every day and all she has to do, is follow the tracks until someone stops her. The monotony of her daily task does not bother Jesse at all.
To us looking at her, it might seem like a terrible job but she is quite content with where she is and in what she is doing.
We are so much better off than this poor donkey that seems to be traveling this one monotonous road all of her life. However, considering our own positions, what we do and how we go about our daily tasks and our ministry to others, I wonder if God doesn’t perhaps see us the same way we see the donkey. The only difference is, we should know better.
We are church, believers who are supposed to follow Jesus to a destination and that destination is not only to enter into heaven or lead others into heaven. There is a much higher purpose but we seem to be constantly evading it.
We are missing the point of our Christian existence completely, continually learning and studying to get somewhere but we never reach the end of our road.
In Ephesians 4 Paul said that Jesus gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers to equip us for the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ. And for 2000 years now we have been doing just that….. 2000 years!!
You might think there is nothing wrong in that because people need edification…. constantly. Really?
Paul wrote that all this teaching should not continue forever. He says it has to carry on until we have reached a certain point – “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of Christ;” (Eph 4:13, 14).
So many mature Christians still need to be led by the hand every day, signifying that self-edification and edification of the body of Christ, is not even on the menu yet. Many attitudes still are: “Put me to the yoke,
Lord, I am willing, oh so willing, to go round and round every day, yoked to You, content till You unyoke me, feed me and bed me down for the night.” However, Jesus unyoked us 2000 years ago telling us to follow Him.
And we talk about the end of the world being close at hand! What must God feel when He looks at us? We have been taught by the Master Architect Himself and we are still going round and round the Rock every year. He desires mature followers, able and equipped for the effective working together of every member of the body of Christ, helping and building each other up, praying and interceding, able to withstand the devil and willing and able to help others stand as we are called to.
Sorry, Lord! Today I will start following You!