1 Corinthians 15:58 - Spinning Wheels

My granddaughter's latest toy is a no-battery, no-noise busy box. It has a beads arranged to look like an abacus, a traditional clock face with hands for learning to tell time, etc. There are also three, wooden gears that spin in sync. Spin one and all three will spin. It's grandpa-tested and approved!

The gears teach a toddler fine motor skills. On the other hand, it's a very tactile experience of "spinning your wheels." Literally.

Adding more gears or more steps in such a process doesn't necessarily make our lives more meaningful. It may result in a Rube Goldberg machine, like his "Self-Operating Napkin."

Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin (Rube Goldberg, 1931). Soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past toucan (E). Toucan jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and ignites lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K), which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M), allowing pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin. {"Rube Goldberg Machine," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine}

Paul wrote, 
"So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." (1 Corinthians 15:58, New Living Translation, 2015)

Lord, there are some days when I seem to be spinning my wheels. Turning gears on a board. Help me to check my motives, to make sure that what I'm doing is for Your sake... so that regardless of what happens, my efforts are not useless. Amen.