After being unwell for several months and taking a break from physical activities, my health improved. My mom needed a carpenter to build a coop for keeping poultry. The carpenter she found disappointed her for unknown reasons. So, I decided to build the coop to test my strength, barely considering how hectic the task would be. I drew a building plan for the coop, defined the lengths for the various parts of the coop, and cut out the woods according to the measured requirements on the plan for the various parts.

I nearly gave up at the first hurdle, which was the hurdle of joint making. I discovered that some of the wood had become too hard for the nails to penetrate. So, I figured out all the hardwoods, and that was how I overcame the hurdle. After a couple of weeks of endurance and sweating, I made a lovely coop.

Then, it dawned on me that the greater part of our Saviour’s life on earth was spent in patient toil in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Unrecognized and unhonored, He was as faithfully fulfilling His mission as Saviour while working at His humble trade as a carpenter.

The Saviour’s life on earth was not a life of ease and devotion to Himself, but He toiled with persistent, earnest, untiring effort for the salvation of lost mankind. Right from the Manger to Calvary, He took the way of self-denial and did not seek to release Himself from hard tasks, painful travels, and exhausting labor. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” This was the one great purpose of His life.

Many have excused themselves from consecrating and rendering their gifts to the service of Christ because they deem others to possess superior endowments and advantages than them, but in the humblest duties and lowest position of life, we may walk and work with Jesus. The humblest and poorest of the disciples of Jesus can be a blessing to others. They may not realize that they are doing any good, but by their unconscious influence, they may start waves of blessing that will widen and deepen.

Strength comes from exercise; activity is the very condition of life. You are not to wait for great occasions or expect extraordinary abilities before you work for God. If your daily life is a testimony to the purity and sincerity of your faith in Christ, your efforts will not be wholly lost. The only way to grow in grace is to be disinterestedly doing the very work that Christ has bestowed upon us to engage, to the extent of our ability, in helping and blessing those who need the help we can give them.

With a loving spirit, we may perform life’s humblest duties. If the love of God is in the heart, it will be manifested in life and all our endeavors, engagements, and affairs. We have to go forward quietly, doing faithfully the work the Lord assigns, and our lives will not be in vain.