The beautiful, yet humbling words of Psalm 127 came to mind for me this evening.

If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor;

if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.

In vain is your earlier rising, your going later to rest, you who toil for the bread you eat, when he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber.

Recently, I have been realizing that my own efforts are not as essential as I may like to thing. I have worked hard at a couple of projects, only to find the results for which I had labored almost “fell into our lap,” independent of me and my hard work…

For example, I have been working with our director of nursing, advertising for a opening LPN position. Exciting to hear that she had found someone, I soon learned that the new nurse had not even seen any of my job postings; she had just happened to call and inquire if we had anything.

I also have been working hard on public relations for our facility, reaching out to various local senior service providers.

Thankfully, we have had several new admissions in the past weeks. It didn’t do my ego any good to hear that these individuals had been referred to us totally independently of my outreach efforts.

The above-quoted psalm fits this situation (as well as countless others) perfectly. Our Lord has poured out gifts upon us, upon me, not needing my efforts. Nonetheless, I realize, too, the He likes to use my feeble attempts.