Killing the Horse
God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I have killed the horse and now I cannot driver the message.
I haven’t written a blog in a few days and that’s on purpose. Since this whole thing started, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. I’ve been working later, longer, and harder, working on my days off, trying to learn new skills, trying to stay ahead of the curve. Working hard honors God. Over-working is a sin. Sometimes it takes somebody on the outside (my loving wife, in this case) to help one tell the difference. God has good reasons for commanding us to rest, not the least of which being reminding us that the world doesn’t depend on us. And the work of the ministry doesn’t depend on us. It depends on him. When I over-work I become self-reliant instead of relying on Jesus. I get legalistic and bitter. I start to look down my nose at others who aren’t “pulling their weight.” and ironically, in the long run, I tend to get less done.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a nineteenth century pastor in Scotland with an impressive list of accomplishments including enrolling Edinburgh university at age 14, graduating and continuing studies at Divinity hall by age 18, being ordained as a pastor at age 22, and pastoring a church of 1,100 in his twenties. He’s probably best known for his Bible reading plan, which is still widely used today. He died at age 29 during a typhus outbreak.
When you look at M’Cheyne’s life, it is clear that he worked hard. Maybe too hard. Several times over the course of his short life his health would fail from overwork and he would have to stop. Inevitably he would come back, work at the same pace, and exhaust himself again. On his deathbed, he reportedly said “God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I have killed the horse and now I cannot driver the message.”
There’s a lesson here. The Christian life is more of a marathon than a sprint. God gave us our bodies (the “horse” in M’Cheyne’s analogy) and we should take care of them: eat well, exercise, and rest. Otherwise, we cannot deliver the message. Imagine what someone with the raw talent of M’Cheyne could have accomplished if he had worked a little less hard and lived twice as long.
Given the choice, I would rather on my deathbed say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
If you’re prone to over-working, remember: the race is a long one. Pace yourself. Resting honors God. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.