Toiling in expectance: The frequently hidden reward in labor
In 1967, Bob Dylan wrote a song called “I Shall Be Released.” A simple interpretation of the piece reveals a message that most people, including Christ-followers, can resonate with. That message is the longing for relief from the inevitable pains of life. For Christians, the desire to leave Earth is founded in a knowledge that God has prepared a place for us that is a perfect refuge from the world we know. In this place, the confusion and chaos we so often feel when navigating ourselves through life instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to do so can master our thinking, and therefore, cause us to cry for relief from life.
The song follows a man falsely accused by the men of the world, or by Satan, the accuser. “Yonder down here in this lonely crowd / is a man who swears he’s not to blame / yet all day long I hear him shout so loud / crying out that he’s been framed / … any day now / any day now / I shall be released.” As Christ-followers, the rewards of following his ways can seem out-of-reach, unfairly distributed, and sometimes, it seems they will never even be given. And it is easy to say “Well, we’ll get rewards in heaven.” But impatience is even easier when waiting for that day.
It is in no way wrong to desire relief, and only righteous to stand in expectance for the sweet ending in Christ, but as we live, our bodies, our minds and our souls are no longer accessories of oneself. They are, instead, part of the meager offering that we must bring to God, day after day, as he has already bought us with the blood of innocence. And the purchase that he has made is not finished until he brings us home by his hand, and not our own. “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).
In the “lonely crowd” with whom we currently dwell, the hope of Christ is unseen, refused by those who love the world. Christians were not placed among lonely people to be lonely with them, but to welcome them into a loving family, teaching them the nature of Christ (Matthew 28:19-20). We have only to thank him that his ways are not easily understood by those whose eyes are set on the world, for if they were, then our hope would be as unreliable in our hearts in the seasons we desire release. Though now may be the time to labor, our hope is the knowledge that we will be released any day now.
Kilker is the opinion editor for the Liberty Champion