In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a man who was punished by the “gods” to spend eternity rolling a large boulder up a hill that always rolled back down to the bottom just before he could reach the top. At times, we’ve all felt like Sisyphus, pouring money and years and energy into the pursuit of things that remain tantalizingly out of reach no matter how hard we went after it. Futility is an ugly sort of word that speaks to us of frustration, waste, hopelessness and despair.
Sometimes the work of the church may even feel like that. We pray, and preach, and witness, and serve, and give… but after years of labor we have brought very few souls out of the harvest and into the storehouse of the church.
I hope you can listen in as we continue our series through the miraculous signs of the book of John by studying the account of a time when Jesus walked on water (John 6:16-20). This story contains a powerful encouragement for us, and a challenge to keep pulling at those oars against the prevailing winds of the culture.