Too Little Icing: The Value of Focused Service - Lori Altebaumer

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A naked wedding cake? Whose idea was that? The first time I heard about this, I was utterly confused. Now I understand. This is usually a cake with a very thin layer of icing—so thin one barely detects its presence. It makes perfect sense for those who don’t love icing but still want their cake. When done well, the simplicity can be quite beautiful. But only to those who don’t like the icing.

As a Christian, I often feel that life is a giant cake over which I’m trying to spread too little icing.

The needs of this world far exceed my ability to meet them. And yet, to say no to anything where help is needed feels like a failure to heed God’s call to “love one another” (see 1 John 4:11). So I spread and spread and spread, hoping to stretch the portion I’ve been given into enough to cover the entire cake. But unlike a naked wedding cake, there is never anything beautiful or sweet about my efforts when I spread myself too thin.

I say yes to too many Bible studies, committees, and fundraising campaigns. I let myself be inundated by an infinite list of requests for help. All good and worthy things, but are they the part of the cake I’m meant to cover?

Is it possible to spread myself so thin that there’s no proof I was even there? Has my time, energy, or offering been so faint, it makes no difference at all?

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Our hearts are broken over the murder of the unborn, the trafficking of humans in modern day slavery, and growing numbers of mental illnesses ravaging our families and communities. We hurt for the abused, the hungry, the addicted, the sick, the grieving, and the lost.

In terms of a cake, it’s a mighty big pastry for one person to ice.

But Solomon tells us whatever our hand finds to do. He doesn’t say heart. Our hearts can be, and usually are, burdened for many things all at once, but our hands can perform only one task at a time.

The Book of Nehemiah is a good example of not trying to ice the whole cake. His is the story of rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 3 is a detailed list of who did what. Each family or group focused on a particular section of the wall or gates. Each had a specific task to perform in a designated place. They didn’t run about taking a swing at a nail here and stacking a stone there just because the entire city was in ruins. They worked with the single-minded purpose of rebuilding what was right before them, and the result was a noticeable impact. In fact, Nehemiah tells us they completed the work in fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15). For a work crew of mostly unskilled laborers, that’s no small accomplishment.

Like these Israelites, we are surrounded by much destruction and devastation. And like the Israelites, now is not the time to spread our icing too thin.

Nor is it the time to give up.

Now is the time and you are the one to make a difference in whatever your hand finds to do.

May I suggest that mountain of cake we are trying to ice has been not just allowed, but encouraged by Satan? He heaps on the guilt every time we say no. He understands how easily we are weakened by stretching ourselves over everything that is in our hearts to do. The guilt that keeps us from saying no is another layer of cake for our finite supply of icing.

Soon we’ll experience weariness—the kind that breeds hopelessness and often depression. The result is an apathy that renders us unable or unwilling to keep trying.

Yes, our world is spinning into increasingly distressing times. The needs pile higher every day.

Now is not the time to dabble in a bit of everything—to spread ourselves too thin. Now is the time to sharpen our arrow, perfect our aim, and send it sailing straight into Satan’s wicked plans.

David had five stones in his pouch when he faced the giant Goliath. But he focused on only one (see 1 Samuel 17:40). Imagine how different that battle might have looked if he’d attempted to take down his giant by throwing all five at once. Both his aim and his strength would have been weakened.

What is in front of you now? What needs can you meet from right where you are? Put your hands to work there, and then work as unto the Lord, and not for men.

The things we may accomplish by our single-minded focus on the one task at hand will exceed the thin difference we may make when we work on a multitude.

Be faithful to serve the Lord with all your heart by working with all your might at whatever work your hands find to do.

Now I’d love to hear from you. Why do you think this is hard for us to do?