The significance of insignificances

You Can't Fail When You're Working With God

What would you attempt for God if you knew you couldn't fail? That question stopped me in my tracks. Because here's the truth most of us miss — when we're doing something for God, failure isn't even possible. The only real failure is doing nothing.

I've been sitting with this ever since returning from our mission trip to Romania, and God kept bringing me back to 1 Corinthians 3:6-9. The Apostle Paul — writing to a deeply divided church in the ancient city of Corinth — cuts through all the noise and says this: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:6-9).

Read that last line again. We are God's fellow workers.

The Church in Corinth Was Fighting the Wrong Battle

The church Paul was writing to had a problem we still see today. They were divided — arguing over who had baptized them, who had laid hands on them, who had preached the sermon that changed their life. Some were in the "Paul camp." Others were in the "Apollos camp." And Paul looks at all of them and essentially says, "What are you even arguing about?"

I've seen this play out firsthand. Over the years, I've walked alongside six different churches through pastoral transitions. Every time, I'd have to sit down with the incoming pastor and say, "Listen — there's going to be a group of people who absolutely loved the last pastor. You may never be their pastor. You've got to be careful you don't try to be like him, and you've got to be careful you don't try to be the opposite of him either." It's the same fight — the love for Paul versus the love for Apollos — just in a different century.

And Paul's answer is simple: "Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything." You're not here because of any person. You're here to glorify God.

Bending Rebar and Building Something That Lasts

In Romania, I’ve had a front-row seat to what this actually looks like in real life. We've been going since 2019, and every year we do a job — sometimes a small one, sometimes a tedious one — and then we come home. One year, I spent two straight days cutting wood. Another year, our team spent hours bending rebar alongside a building. Dr. Mike's fingers still hurt from tying all those pieces together. We looked at each other and thought, Is this even worth anything?

Then, exactly one year later, we drove up to that same spot and almost didn't recognize it. The building had gone up. The concrete had been poured. The steel beams were in. And we realized — our little, painful, tedious work was part of that.

I remember another building in Bucharest — an old concrete structure full of pigeons because the windows and doors were missing. One year we put up thick blue plastic to keep the weather out. A massive storm came and tore it all down. The next year we came back with chicken wire. We kept asking ourselves, Did we do anything?

Yes. We did exactly what God asked us to do.

Your Labor Matters More Than Your Outcome

Here's what stopped me cold in 1 Corinthians 3:8: "Each will receive his wages according to his labor" — not according to his production. His labor.

God doesn't reward the outcome. He rewards the work. That means I have to stop focusing on the outcome — and honestly, that's my biggest issue. Every time I preach, I'm already calculating the result. But when I focus on the outcome, I miss the point of glorifying God, because the outcome isn't up to me.

Think about Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who spoke for 40 years to a nation that refused to listen. By the world's measure, he was a failure. But God never once called him that. God said, "Just speak what I told you to speak." You and I cannot fail when we do something for God. The only failure is when we do nothing.

Nothing Is Insignificant in the Kingdom

I want you to hear this — really hear it. Nothing you do for the Father is insignificant.

A few years ago, God called me to stand on a street corner in South Chicago in the dead of winter — just me, in an orange snowboard jacket, holding a sign that said "Jesus Loves You" and another that said "How Can We Pray For You?" Cars drove by. Some people flipped me off. I was freezing. I was discouraged. I asked God, "Would you just give me one person?"

Weeks later, a woman pulled up with tears in her eyes. She told me that two weeks earlier she had just received devastating news from her doctor. She was driving down that road, crying out to God, asking, "Are you there? Are you even listening?" — and she saw this guy in an orange jacket holding a sign that said Jesus Loves You.

She said, "That's all I needed to make it through."

I never prayed for her. I never even saw her. My eyes never met hers. But that one moment — that seemingly insignificant moment — radically changed her life.

A smile on your face. Letting someone go ahead of you in line. Paying for someone's meal. Picking up a piece of trash because you want to honor God. Saying "Jesus loves you" to someone. These things move eternity.

What Would You Do If You Knew You Couldn't Fail?

God isn't asking for perfection. He's asking for the best of what you have. Excellence isn't doing it perfectly — it's doing it to the best of your ability. Your ability is different from mine. I can draw you a stick figure — an ugly one — but it's the best I've got. That's all God holds me to.

And here's the thing about being God's field — God doesn't leave a field sitting idle. He's tilling. He's watering. He's pulling weeds. He's doing active work in you, even as you're working for Him. On every mission trip I've been on, people come back saying, "I think I got more out of that than they did." Of course you did. Because when you work for God, God works on you.

So stop waiting until you have the right words to share your faith. Stop waiting until you feel qualified. God's not asking you to save anybody — you can't save anybody. He's asking you to share the gospel. Tell somebody Jesus loves them. Fumble over the words if you have to. "I got you covered," He says, "because you did the thing I asked you to do."

Putting It Into Practice

Stop chasing the outcome. Your job is to plant or water. God handles the growth. Release the pressure of needing to see the result.

Do the next thing — whatever it is. Picking up a piece of paper, smiling at a stranger, paying for someone's coffee, saying a kind word — when done for the glory of God, it is significant in the Kingdom.

Ask God a better question. Instead of "What should I do?" try "God, how can I water someone today? Who needs to see your love right now?"

Share your faith — imperfectly. You don't need a theology degree. You need a willing heart. Tell someone Jesus loves them. That might be all they need to make it through.

Remember who you're working with. God isn't the foreman watching from a distance, waiting to tell you it's not good enough. He's right beside you. When you pick up that piece of paper, He's picking it up with you.

The question I'll leave you with is the one I had to ask myself: Without the fear of failure, what work would you undertake for God?

Because here's the great news — you can't fail when you're working with Him.