Do Not Become Weary in Doing Good – Galatians 6:9 with Prof. Dion Forster
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In this episode of the Get Up and Go Breakfast program on Radio Cape Pulpit, host Anton Brink speaks with Professor Dion Forster – extraordinary professor of systematic theology at Stellenbosch University and ordained minister in the Methodist Church of South Africa – about Galatians 6:9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Prof. Forster shares the powerful story of a missionary in the Polynesian Islands – a sixth or seventh generation Christian – who worked his whole life on an island with only two or three visible converts. In his journal, the missionary worried that he had wasted his life. The one thing he had done was translate the Bible into the local vernacular. Yet after his death, that translation led to thousands and thousands of people coming to faith across the region.
Forster reflects on the character of God as revealed in Exodus 34:6: "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness." This is who God is – and this is the goodness we are called to embody. Jesus didn't just preach goodness; He lived it.
He references theologian Stanley Hauerwas, who said Christians should "live with the grain of the universe" – like a carpenter cutting wood with the grain, not against it. When we align our lives with God's character of goodness, even when results are not visible, we are living in harmony with God's purposes.
The episode encourages listeners to continue doing good, even when it seems difficult or fruitless, trusting that God's harvest will come at the proper time – just as the missionary's faithfulness bore fruit long after his lifetime.
Prof. Forster shares the powerful story of a missionary in the Polynesian Islands – a sixth or seventh generation Christian – who worked his whole life on an island with only two or three visible converts. In his journal, the missionary worried that he had wasted his life. The one thing he had done was translate the Bible into the local vernacular. Yet after his death, that translation led to thousands and thousands of people coming to faith across the region.
Forster reflects on the character of God as revealed in Exodus 34:6: "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness." This is who God is – and this is the goodness we are called to embody. Jesus didn't just preach goodness; He lived it.
He references theologian Stanley Hauerwas, who said Christians should "live with the grain of the universe" – like a carpenter cutting wood with the grain, not against it. When we align our lives with God's character of goodness, even when results are not visible, we are living in harmony with God's purposes.
The episode encourages listeners to continue doing good, even when it seems difficult or fruitless, trusting that God's harvest will come at the proper time – just as the missionary's faithfulness bore fruit long after his lifetime.
