In 1995, a movie was released titled “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” It traced the career of a musician who took a job as a high school music teacher in order to spend more time with his new wife and write an orchestral symphony. At first, he had trouble with the job and his fellow staff members; his wife became pregnant, and he had to use the money he saved to fund his symphony to buy a home. His son turned out to be deaf, and he struggled with relating to a boy that he couldn’t share music with. In short, he became embroiled in the issues of life, and his dreams had to be set to the side.
Mr. Holland eventually became a caring and devoted teacher, and found ways to relate to his deaf son. But years went by, and though he kept working on his symphony, he realized time had run out for him to fund it again or produce it. Eventually, he was forced to retire early when his school’s music program was canceled … and on his final day as a teacher, his wife, son, and students conspired to have his symphony performed, with him as director. The movie closed with the symphony playing majestically, the camera panning around the auditorium, and you saw all his former and current students, his friends on staff and his family … all of the people he touched in the course of his life. It was then you realized that the opus of the movie’s title was not the music at all. It was the people whose lives Mr. Holland changed.
Christians often have to struggle with a similar course of events. It is human nature to be attracted to the big, bold, flashy life works, and even introverts and quiet, self-effacing people like to be recognized at least once in a while. But wide recognition, or even the fulfillment of personal dreams, typically only happens to a few. Most of us go through our lives, doing our daily deeds and reaping modest rewards for modest efforts. And we have a tendency to think somehow we aren’t doing enough, and feel as if, at the end of our lives, we will have nothing to show for it. We want the Lord to give us an “important” job, and we say it is to glorify Him … but if we are really honest with ourselves, we might realize that the glory we seek is our own.
In Colossians 3:23-24, we read: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Note the use of the word “whatever,” in that passage, with no respect to how important you might think that “whatever” may be. And the person we are doing it for is the Lord Himself … who will Himself reward us, for it is Him that we serve in the mundane facts of our daily existence.
But an even more important thing to remember, I believe, is that the simple, mundane works of life might turn out to be more important than you realize. The apostle Paul isn’t generally one we go to when we consider every-day, average life, but look at what he says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” Paul is quite content to take a lesser role in that scenario. He just planted the seeds. His friend Apollos watered them, and he doesn’t even mention the harvester. But the entire work, from start to finish, was the Lord’s, and everyone involved had a role in making a productive field or a sturdy building. In the end, it’s the Lord’s doing, but Paul acknowledges that we also have a role, and not one of those roles is any more or less important than any other, because every one of them is needed.
So then, are you loving your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18 … and for a real interesting variant, Rom. 13:10)? Are you speaking all truth in love (Eph. 4:15)? Are you rejoicing in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4)? Are you fruitful in every good work (Col. 1:10)? Every act of love and obedience to the Lord done in the presence of another is a seed planted. It’s a seed that may or may not bear fruit, depending largely on the person who receives it, but it is a seed nonetheless. And every seed has the potential to be a plant or a mighty tree … you have no way of knowing. In fact, it doesn’t matter: God wants you to be laying down those seeds no matter what.
In this life, you may never have Mr. Holland’s blessing of seeing all the people you have touched. But you are touching them … and in your case, is it for good or for evil? Plant the seeds of a righteous life, the righteousness that Christ Himself imparted to you on the cross, and let God bring those seeds to harvest.