Two men are trying to put out a forest fire on the Island of Crete.  The fire is in an inaccessible area in Rethymno and is still spreading.  (You can see this here:  http://lightbox.time.com/2011/07/29/the-best-pictures-of-the-week-july-22-july-29/#7)

Have you ever tried in vain to do something?  Ever had a car not start, but you keep turning the key over and over to make sure it really isn’t starting?  Or maybe, how people try in vain to turn back time on the wrinkles all over their faces?  You try in vain to get a good night sleep when you know you have a long day ahead of you?  Trying to mend a broken relationship, but the efforts end up in vain?

 

According to Yahoo!, “in vain” simply means that you try to do something that is “futile” or “useless”.  It doesn’t matter how much of your own effort you put in to do something – it just isn’t going to happen.  You are incapable of doing it on your own.  You don’t have the power to make it happen on your own.

 

I feel like this in life sometimes.  It is as though I’m living my life “in vain”.  All of my efforts are for not.  I am like a hamster running on a wheel to nowhere, but yet I keep running and keep trying “in vain”.  It’s like building a sandcastle only to turn around and see the water melt it away as though your hands had never constructed it.  I try so hard sometimes to be a “good Christian” or a “Godly Woman of God”, a “Virtuous Wife and Mother”.  But that’s the problem… “I” try. 

 

How can I be so happy that God saved me from my life of despair, bought me with a price, brought me unto Him, calls me His own and yet I still think that “I” can make my life better?  Odd if you ask me.  It’s like being given a brand new home and boasting that I built it myself; buying a piece of property that has acres of healthy farmland and raving at how well I have sown and am reaping a harvest.

 

Galatians 3:2-4 says it like this in the Message Bible:  “Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin?  Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you?  Are you going to continue this craziness?  For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.  If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?  Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing?  It is not yet a total loss, but i certainly will be if you keep this up!”

 

I am very (and I mean VERY) slowly coming to the realization that I really can’t do much on my own except to make a mess of what is before me.  It may look good and sometimes even sound good, but ultimately when I don’t allow the Holy Spirit to take over it crumbles before me in a heap of trash – useless and futile, in vain.

 

We have to get to the place in our lives where we are not like these men in this picture, trying in vain to put out a wildfire that is going to spread beyond our control.  Because life and all its worries, pains, and problems will spread as quick as this wildfire is surely spreading.  It will overtake us.  We will try in vain to wave it off, blow it away, squirt it with a little bit of water, but ultimately life and all its challenges is getting bigger and bigger.  The only time it is under control is when the true fire of the Holy Spirit blows over our lives.  When we allow something and someone greater than ourselves to control everything around us.  We have to give up with our own futile efforts and let Him take over. 

 

Isaiah 49:1-4 says this (MSG Bible):  “Listen, far-flung islands, pay attention, faraway people:  God put me to work from the day I was born.  The moment I entered the world He named me.  He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.  He kept His hand on me to protect me.  He made me His straight arrow and hid me in His quiver.  He said to me, “You’re my dear servant, Israel, through whom I’ll shine.”  But I said, “I’ve worked for nothing.  I’ve nothing to show for a life of hard work.  Nevertheless, I’ll let God have the last word.  I’ll let Him pronounce His verdict.”

 

We have to get to the place in our lives where we understand that all we do is in vain, is futile, until we give it over to God and allow Him to work through us.  We need to let God have the last word in our lives.  Let Him “pronounce His verdict”.  Let Him be the one to say what is good and worthy.