I lied because I was obstinately independent. I lied because I thought Christians were fools. I lied because it was socially expedient. It was the quickest way to get out of the uncomfortable conversation with my grandmother. By the time my grandmother died, I was an avowed atheist who liked to pick fights with Christians about their beliefs.

But then a friend who wasn’t afraid of my debates asked me to join him at a youth service to learn more. With the persistence of my grandmother he invited me again and again. And I relented. I discovered the pain of my stubbornness. I recognized my failure to be and do good apart from God and I came to learn that Jesus was the way of hope even in my brokenness. God had a plan that sought to redeem all things to his purposes, possibly even my life.

The Grace of a Conquistador

Having committed to faith in Christ though I quickly learned that God expected me to make manifest his kingdom. I flourished under these expectations, learning to live into the new identity God had given me.

At first, I was overzealous. Completely flip-flopping in my debates with Christians from avowed atheist to avowed apologist. The faith, its doctrines, and especially my thoughts on them had to be defended and I was just the man for the job. I would be the one to prove the bible true. Each and every doubt or question had a solution waiting to be conquered along with the people who voiced them.

My way of being hadn’t changed much post conversion. Like Benedict Arnold, I had simply switched sides. I still sought out the conflict, the fight and the debate.

Unfortunately, it is hard for a conqueror to communicate grace to the conquered.

On too many occasions my breath carried the odor of toe-jam. The after taste of which was less than satisfying. In her novel Gilead, Marilynn Robinson’s character John Ames perhaps said it best.

​Nothing true can be said about God from a posture of defense

But defend I did! Vigorously at that.

From Atheist to Apologist to Participant

I have a second grade daughter that is fantastic at mathematics. Her teacher sends home extra work for her because she finishes the regular work too quickly. Last week she wanted me to look over her homework and I noticed she had made a mistake.

She totaled the sum of 713 and 129 as 832 rather than 842. When I said that she might want to check her work she insisted that her answer was correct. Even after we did the problem another way, broke it down and solved it on a calculator she still insisted on her answer. There was no convincing her that the tens place should be occupied by a 4 rather than a 3.

She is her father’s daughter after all. As both an atheist and an apologist I had approached the problems of the biblical text in the same way. Obstinate defiance. I refused to see the evidence right in front of my face and admit the truth because doing so would somehow reflect my own fallenness, my own ability to make mistakes.

The irony is that it is precisely fallenness, that proclivity to make mistakes, that God wishes to redeem. In defending the full humanity of Jesus, Gregory of Nazianus, 4th C. CE Archbishop of Constantinople, argued that whatever Jesus “has not assumed, he has not healed.” At the time, Apollinaris had been arguing that Jesus was fully human except for his divine logos (or mind). To Gregory this was tantamount to saying that the human mind was beyond redemption – even the redemption offered by God.

I like to think that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. If he was willing to enter fully into our humanity in Jesus, then it seems likely that he was willing to enter into that humanity during his self revelation in scripture. In seeking to partner with human authors and audiences God entered into our proclivity for encultured expression, miscommunication, misjudgement and error. He did this in order to do what he as always done: to heal that which he assumes, to redeem it (even its cultured expressions), transform it and draw it to a new place and purpose more conformed to himself.

I realized that I shouldn’t be an atheist or an apologist. I was simply called to be a participant in a story that was so much bigger than either of those categories, bigger than myself. I discovered that my relationship with God through Jesus in the power of the Spirit was not made up of one answered question after another, but manifest as part of the larger story of God’s redemptive history.

• A history that is filled with ambiguity and tension.
• A story that is filled with love and grace but also wrath and judgment.
• And a story of the reality of present suffering and of glorified futures already manifested in renewed identities.

I discovered that God has always sought those he calls to himself where they are at, in their own broken contexts, in order to bring them to a new context.

I search the archaeological and cultural backgrounds of the biblical text because I no longer see the biblical text as something to be affirmed or negated. It simply exists in the tension of the messy middle created by the combination of divine intent and human instruments. It simply reveals a God that is constantly calling us to participate in the greatest story of transformation ever told. Its title is ‘The Renewal of All Things,” atheists, apologists and participants included.

The Bible is not to be affirmed or negated. It reveals the God calling us to participate in redemptive history.

The area is so large that almost no historians would claim to specialize in the entire region. Yet, if we wish to become familiar with the many and varied people groups, cultures, and geographical settings of the bible we will have to become familiar with this grand landscape. For me, after having spent a decade focusing on the geography and and cultural backgrounds of Israel and Palestine, the next logical step was to expand my studies to Turkey (Anatolia/Asia Minor). That’s why I can’t wait to head to Turkey this summer to study the historical and cultural geography of the New Testament world with Brad Gray.

I think you should join me!​

If you’ve ever thought you wanted to visit the “holy land” or study the “lands of the bible,” you will need to include the lands of Turkey as a major part of that study sooner or later. They afford a picture of the New Testament world that is not available anywhere else. Here are seven reasons why.

7 reasons you should study the Bible in Turkey

Hagia Sophia. Photo courtesy of The Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

1. The New Testament was written from real people to real people

At least two-thirds of the new testament texts were either written from or to locations in Turkey (Asia Minor/ Anatolia). In our our attempts at systematic theologies and applications of the apostles’ words to our modern context we frequently forget that they were not written first and foremost for and to us. They were largely letters or narratives written for a very different people in very specific contexts. The more familiar you are with those contexts, the history, geography and culture of the texts’ authors and recipients, the better equipped you are to understand those texts in their original context. This prevents you from reading your own context into the text and allows you to better translate the texts’ original meaning for application today.

2. You’ll gain an appreciation for difficulties faced by the apostles

While, in many ways, the Roman imperial infrastructure facilitated the spread of the gospel throughout the 1st century Roman world, it is easy to loose touch with just how difficult those missionary journeys were. We flippantly refer to Paul’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd missionary journeys with little understanding of the miles, hills and valleys surmounted. Actually traveling the land (though certainly with the advances of modern transportation) you can begin to appreciate the massive task that was set before the apostles as they sought to fulfill the commission of making disciples of all nations.​

3. You’ll encounter the real seven churches of revelation

As often as we would like to apply a specific judgement about one of the churches of Revelation to the congregation down the street (Don’t pretend like you haven’t) we really shouldn’t look to today’s church as our primary point of reference for understanding the point of the message in revelation. That church down the street, or across the intersection was not John of Patmos’ first or even intended audience. No, the churches of revelation are all in Turkey: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea! In most cases their geographical and ancient cultural context figure prominently in Revelation’s words for each of them. There is no better way to get a handle on why Jesus told them what he did than from within their precincts.

Temple of Apollo – Didyma, Photo courtesy of The Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

4. You’ll realize everything is bigger in Turkey​

If you thought that the moniker “everything is bigger in …” should be applied to Texas for all time you would be wrong. During the 1st century BCE-CE, as western Turkey, Cappadocia, Lycia and Galatia were annexed into the Roman Empire, these provinces on the fringes not only had the means but also had the desire to prove their allegiance to the Emperor. As a result everything, especially the imperial cults became bigger in Turkey. There is no better place to get a clear picture of the influence those cults had on the early church. 

Siloam Tunnel Inscription – Istanbul Museum. Photo courtesy WikiMedia Commons

5. The Istanbul Museum​

Sometimes its not just about the sites but about the material collections available. The Istanbul Museum is just such an impressive collection of artifacts. During the period of Ottoman control of Palestine significant material remains, such as the Siloam tunnel inscription, were collected and transferred to the Istanbul museum. There are physical remains here that can’t be seen anywhere else in the world.

6. You’ll be better equipped to Connect the Contexts​

The ancient greco-roman world is perhaps more akin to our own modern context then that of ancient Israel. While Israel is a perfect place to get a handle on the ministry of Jesus and the texts of the Old Testament, Turkey offers a unique vantage into how the gospel spread amongst and came to be applied in a culture more similar to our own in the modern western world.

7. It isn’t a vacation, it’s an investment.

As you consider how you might enhance your ministry, either as a professional or as a lay leader, or seek to enhance your understanding of the biblical text in general, there is no book or tool that compares to the transformative experience of reading the biblical texts with your feet. Traveling to the Lands of the Bible are an investment that pays dividends over a lifetime of ministry and devotion in the text.

Hattusha’s (capital of the Hittites) Lion Gate. Photo Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

I would go on, but stopping at seven seems more biblical. Like I have attained some fulfillment of the task to which I set out. There are certainly more reasons to include Turkey in your travel plans as you study the lands of the bible, not least of which is the region’s influence on the world and culture of the Old Testament (Who were those pesky Hittites after all).

Planning your trip:

I discussed some of the additional reasons why you may want to include a trip to Turkey as part of your biblical studies with Pastor and Author Brad Gray on October 30th. Brad also shared upcoming opportunities to join us as we Walk the Text in the New Testament World.

I will be traveling with Brad to Turkey this summer for his “Walking the Text in the New Testament World”  trip and would be happy to explain why I think this is fantastic opportunity for any pastor or lay person interested in getting a better handle on the texts of the new testament.

If you, or someone you know, might benefit from knowing more about how studying the biblical text IN Turkey could transform their spiritual life then be sure to share this opportunity and video (blab) with them.

I have written quite a bit about Elijah before (find more posts here). I guess you know a story is good when, each and every time you return to it, it has something more to reveal, some new element you’ve never noticed before. The story of Elijah is that way for me.

Recently, in preparing for a teaching, I noticed Elijah travels to a place I had never noticed before – the Negev wilderness

Two Mountaintops

By the time Elijah finds himself in the wilderness, he has already had one mountain top experience where Yahweh showed up powerfully in the form of thunder, lightning and rain. This created a problem for Elijah though. After the triumphant clarity of the initial mountain top confrontation with the Prophets of Baal, something far more opaque crept into Elijah’s psyche when he was confronted by Ahab’s foreign wife Jezebel:

The God who answered my prayers looked an awful lot like the God the prophets of Baal were praying to. He showed up as a strike of lightning, a voice of thunder, and a fertility giving rain throughout the Jezreel valley. Exactly how Baal would have shown up!

When Elijah met Jezebel there was a very real possibility that Elijah didn’t know who the god was that had fulfilled all his prayers on Carmel. Elijah had come to a major crisis of confidence. He doubts himself, he doubts his god and he runs for his life before Jezebel.

Eventually, he finds his way to a second mountaintop experience, this time at Sinai, where God shows Elijah that, even though he can manifest himself in earthly phenomenon like the other gods of the ancient near east, he was different. He was also transcendent, otherworldly, able to manifest himself in the “thinnest of silences” or nothing at all.

The Wilderness Between

In the journey between those two mountains, Elijah finds himself submerged in the wilderness. There, in the desert, his crisis of uncertainty is so great that he wishes for his own death. Take a look at 1 Kings 19:3 and 4:

“Then [Elijah] was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beer-Sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.’”

1 Kings 19:3-4

If you are anything like me, a passage like this leaves you wondering a few things…

• Who are Elijah’s fathers? We don’t hear about his father anywhere else in the text.
• Why, exactly, is Elijah no different from his fathers?
• And finally, why does that similarity require his death?

As you might have guessed, rarely is the setting incidental to the story. Elijah is a day’s walk into the wilderness around Beer-Sheba, most likely this meant that he was somewhere just north of the wilderness of Zin.

That location should ring some bells for you because it just so happens to be nearly the exact location of the Israelites when, fleeing Egypt, they commissioned twelve men to spy out the land which was to be their inheritance. Only Joshua and Caleb would return from that trip into the Wilderness of Zin and the southern lands of Judah believing they could accomplish what the Lord had set before them, as the rest of the spies were plagued by doubt. A doubt that would spread like wildfire and necessitate the death of a generation before the children of Israel could enter the Promised Land.

Elijah believes himself to be struggling with a doubt on par with that of his fathers, the Israelites who failed to enter the land of Canaan when they were supposed to, necessitating his death just as it necessitated theirs. This is deep doubt indeed!

But as I continued to study this part of the story I was caught short. I marveled at not having noticed it before. Elijah’s second mountain top experience at Sinai was not God’s initial response to Elijah’s doubt. Indeed, God responded to Elijah’s doubt right then and there, in the wilderness, in the middle of Elijah’s dark night of the soul.

The writer of the book of kings tells us that while Elijah slept under a tree in the wilderness…

“an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.”

1 Kings 19:5-8

What was God’s initial response to Elijah’s doubt?

Was it judgment? Did God say, “I guess you’re not actually part of my family after all!”

Nope.

Was it condemnation? “Elijah, I can’t abide your questions and suspicions any longer.”

Nope.

Was it Rejection? “Perhaps you shouldn’t be serving in ministry right now; I’ll find a new prophet.”

Nope.

God’s initial response to Elijah’s doubt, while he is still in the wilderness, is sustaining care!

“Arise and Eat”

God’s initial response to Elijah’s doubt is recognition of its rootedness in our humanity!

“for the journey is too great for you”

In other words, God’s initial response to our doubt, the response that happens while we are still in the middle of the wilderness — that response, it is all about grace! It is a response that says, “Yes, you have found yourself steeped in the dark night of the soul but you are my chosen people, my chosen prophet, and I have called you out for a purpose. Let me sustain you for forty days, or forty years, or the rest of your life, but through this time of hardship.”

Here’s the sticky wicket. We may have our mountain top experiences.  We may experience the immanent God with us at Mount Carmel, and we may experience the transcendent God above us at Mount Sinai, but much of life is lived in the wilderness between. In our doubt, God may be calling us to Mount Sinai, but that doesn’t stop him from suffering through it with us in the wilderness

right now,

where we are at.

Our churches would do well to consider Elijah as they interact with those who are brave enough to give voice to their own dark nights of the soul. Not the Elijah on Carmel or Sinai, but the Elijah that was once alone in the Negev wilderness.

I pray that, as you experience your own period of doubt, that you would be relieved in the knowledge that God knows the “journey is too great for you.” May you daily, “arise and eat,” sustained for the journey to Sinai set before you.

The geography of the land of the bible played an important role in creating and restricting particular lines of sight. For many of the biblical characters the highly variegated topography of Israel and Jordan meant that their personal geography, the area of land which they saw and thought about on a daily basis, could significantly impact their daily life.

Take for example Elimelech and Naomi.

Rabbinic tradition has held that Elimelech and his two sons fled Bethlehem because they “were stingy” (Ruth Zuta 1:2). In this view, Elimelech is seen as a wealthy man of Bethlehem who abandons his land because he can afford to, rather than using his wealth to aid his community in crisis. Mishnah holds that the three’s subsequent deaths in the Book of Ruth are directly related to this “sin.”

Unfortunately, this tends to read much more into the text than the two facts which are there:  there was a famine in Judah and Elimelech subsequently took his family to Moab. (Ruth 1:1-2)

Having a better understanding of Elimelech’s personal geography provides a more banal explanation for his sojourns in Moab. Namely, the grass is always greener on the other side.

In this case, the maxim can be taken quite literally. Bethlehem lies just east of the central ridge running the length of the Judean hill country, and as such, it exists on the periphery of the sown lands in the rain shadow of the central mountain range. Hemmed in by the ridge to the west, Bethlehem had a decided eastward focus. This meant that it overlooked the parched pasturelands of the Judean wilderness, across the rift valley and Dead Sea towards the wonderful sight of the Transjordanian Highlands to the south east.

Much higher, these highlands were better suited for agriculture and would have been well watered, allowing the green vegetation lining the rise to the plains of Moab to be visible even from as far away as Bethlehem.

Pictures, like the one above, can only do so much. They can show you how the plains of Moab were within sight of Bethlehem. They can show you how Moab can sometimes appear as a lush carpet of green compared to the desiccated Judean wilderness. They can even show you the rise of the central ridge to the west. But, they cannot give you overarching sense of how the geography of Bethlehem was focused. Unless, you’re standing in Elimelech’s or Naomi’s shoes, in Bethlehem, it’s hard to get a handle on their personal geography.

That’s why I made the following map some years ago. It depicts all the land that is visible when standing in the Ancient city of Bethlehem. Everything that is yellow would have been visible from a person, even a short person, standing in Elimelech’s or Naomi’s sandals.

We know from this map the following:

• Bethlehem (the yellow dot) is decidedly eastern looking.
• While other fruitful plains were available to the residents of Judah, such as the Benjamin plateau north of Jerusalem, or the Philistine Coastal plain to the west of Judah, Bethlehem only had eyes for the plains of Moab.
• In times of famine in Judah, the lush slopes of Moab accross the rift valley would have looked ripe for the picking.

Elimelech and Naomi left for Moab during Bethlehem’s famine because it was the only prospect they could see in their personal geography.

Focusing your personal geography

What is the focus of your personal geography? If you are in ministry, what do you think about as you drive past the mega-church on your way to your own small flock? How has the greener grass on the other side of the rift valley led you to sojourn in a land you were not meant to live? If you are not in ministry, what opportunities do you see on the horizon, what opportunities closer to home are you missing because of the ridge blocking your view? Leave an answer in the comments below!

This is a Guest Post by my good friend Matt Engle.

Matt is Pastor of Senior and Junior High Ministries at The River Church of the South Bay in Torrance, California. He has traveled extensively throughout Israel, Jordan and Egypt and will complete a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary next spring.

— Larry

The teenage mind is wired for technology and stimulation.

As a youth pastor, I face this reality every Wednesday night.  As I communicate God’s story to high school students, it is not uncommon to see several teenagers trying to secretly carry on conversations via text message during my sermon.  With access to friends in group texts, new pictures on Facebook, and the latest NBA score, the power of the “smart phone” poses a unique challenge to high school pastors wanting to teach a twenty-minute sermon from an ancient text devoid of any visuals or cute cat videos.

Is there a way for youth pastors to redeem the teenage proclivity towards technology and engage teenagers with the Bible?

Yes indeed! Knowing the historical geography of the biblical text allows me to stimulate the teenage mind and give them captivating visuals that communicate powerful theological truths.

For teenagers, entering into a discussion about geography may at first sound as boring as giving them an exegetical breakdown in Greek, yet more than anything else, knowing the land of the Bible allows me to paint biblical stories with the color necessary to capture their minds.  St. Jerome called the land of the Bible the “fifth gospel”.  In my ministry to high school students, it is precisely this “fifth gospel” that redeems the teenage proclivity towards technology. Indeed, such study is a powerful tool for engaging teenagers because it allows me to stimulate their minds with the visceral world of the text.

Two short examples hopefully illustrate this point.

Feel the burn!

The first comes from Matthew 21: 17-18:

Jesus “went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry” (NRSV).

Matthew 21: 17-18

It is easy to skip over this passage because it does not jump off the page like a critique of the Pharisees or shout atonement theology.  But I have found, and have tried to communicate to my students, that it is precisely in a passage like this that we find amazing theological truths.

Until one is able to experience the physical calf-burn from walking up and down the Kidron Valley or the Mt. of Olives, it is hard to appreciate this trek.  Jesus had spent a full day riding from Bethpage on a donkey to drive out the moneychangers in the Temple.  Afterward, he returned back across the Kidron Valley to the town of Bethany.  Early the next day he makes his way back towards the Temple for another trek down into the Kidron Valley and up the other side.

Feeling the physical strain on the body from this hill, one not only gets an appreciation for Jesus’ fitness level, but a small detail like “he was hungry”, draws us closer to His humanity.  This type of passage should cause all Bible readers to slow down, pay attention to how the details illustrate the story, and then draw theological conclusions.  In this case, a little bit of geographical knowledge helps me stimulate the teenage mind by getting them to feel the text and connect to the humanity of Jesus.

Into the wild

Consider also Deuteronomy 32:10:

 “He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.” (NRSV)

Deuteronomy 32:10

For most of my students, the picture of wilderness brings images of dense forest and huge granite mountains.  Into the Wild runs through their minds or a hopeful skiing trip with friends.  Yet this is not the “wilderness” of this passage.  The wilderness of this passage (the wilderness of Judah) lacks all the natural resources the stereotypical American wilderness possesses.  One cannot build a cozy hut and live by a stream in this wilderness.  But the powerful tool of historical geography allows my students to understand the reality of this wilderness and to better grasp the theological significance of the passage.

Anyone who has traveled in this wilderness has felt its heat and tasted its dust.  You cannot live in it for very long without knowing the importance of an intimate, protecting, and sustainer God.  For teenagers removed from the land of the Bible, the geographical realities of this wilderness engages their minds with God’s intimate, protecting, and sustaining nature.  They are after all journeying through the often howling wilderness of high school.

• We ask God for him to heal a broken home without ever considering how we might physically serve the individuals residing in it.
• We complain about “that church” without being willing to be a member, or serve on the elder board
• We pray for the sick, without being willing to visit the hospital.
• We pray for the poor, homeless and struggling, without taking actionable steps to come alongside them.
• And sometimes we pray for our labors to be fruitful without putting in the hard work necessary to make that blessing a reality.

But, God has no interest in blessing free-riders. God is looking for kingdom builders and business partners. Fortunately, this is a lesson written in to the very landscape of redemptive history

The “promised land” was not a place where God’s blessing comes easily

At the very end of the long, arduous, exodus and wilderness wandering, when Israel encamped on the eastern side of the Jordan River, Moses took a moment to describe the land that the fledgling nation was called to conquer and inhabit. He told them:

The Land that you are entering is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of Vegetables. But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Deuteronomy 11:10-12

Moses was warning the Israelites in two ways.

1. He was warning them that the “promised land” would require greater dependence on God for blessing.

Egypt was one of the breadbaskets of the world. The Nile and its annual flood made large scale cultivation possible via irrigation. By the time of the exodus, a parcel the size of Maryland was able to be cultivated. By the height of the Roman Empire, Egypt could provide enough food for the entire city of Rome for four months out of the year.

Unlike Egypt, farming in Israel depended on the rains of heaven (dry-farming). Unfortunately, the “Promised Land” stood on the margins of where such farming was even possible given the amount of rain they received. The types of grains that predominantly took root were less desirable and any year of drought could have a devastating impact for generations. In other words, the land depended on God for its fruitfulness in ways that the land of Egypt did not.

2. Moses was also warning the Israelites that the “promised land” would require them to work harder for God’s blessing to take root.

More than dependence, the geophysical realities of the land meant that a lot more work was necessary for God’s blessing to take root. In Egypt cultivation occurred at the toe-tip. The relative flatness of the Nile delta meant that a field could be watered by simply pushing over a small berm with your foot. Water from nearby irrigation canals would flood the field and your harvest was all but assured.

In the Promised Land, the Israelites would have to give God something to bless. Yes, fields depended on rains from the heavens but that water easily ran-off the hills into valleys controlled by Canaanites. This was especially true in the central hill country where steep valleys required terracing in order for fields and orchards to become sustainably fruitful.

More than that, massive and complex water collection and food storage systems were necessary to support the Israelites and their livestock during times of drought. In other words, in the Promised Land, the Israelites would have to partner with God for the vision of a “land flowing with milk and honey” to come to fruition.

Give God something to bless

God chose the land of Israel for a reason. While I don’t presume to know the answer, the geophysical reality suggests that you can’t learn to depend on God in a land like Egypt where everything you need to live is at the tip of your fingers.

God found more glory in requiring the Israelites to live in a place of greater labor. There is something that makes our fruitfulness rot when it comes easy. There is something about resting on the laurels of an ever present Nile that is detrimental to our dependence on God.

• How many pastoral downfalls begin once a Pastor believes they have “made-it?”
• How many fields do you water with your foot? Did you choose your church, or your job or your friends based upon what was easy?
• How many relationships do you cultivate through terracing so that when God’s rains do come, they are put to good use?

Next time, before you ask for God’s blessing, do the work necessary for that blessing to be best displayed. More than that, be the mechanism by which God can bless others. Next time, work hard with honest dependence and give God something to bless