Prosper the Work of our Hands

“Prosper the work of our hands, Lord.” I don’t think this line from the psalms is asking God for wealth. Many gage the successfulness of life by the amount and quality of stuff accumulated. The centuries following Christ have produced a treasury of “show, don’t tell” illustrations of what is the measure of true success--giving it all, time and money, away. Here are just a few of my favorite stories.
In the fifth century, the daughter of a slave and an Irish chieftain handed her father’s ceremonial sword over to a beggar. This act greatly disturbed her father, who marked it as the final straw in her free and easy manner with his wealth. He sent her off to serve her uncle and, after nursing her dying mother, she persuaded her uncle turn her loose. She spent the rest of her life traversing medieval Ireland, setting up communities of women devoted to serving the spiritual and physical needs of the impoverished. Born into slavery, she didn’t waste time moping about her circumstance. She poured every last drop of life she had into serving Christ. This is Brigid of Kildare
In the 13th century, Elizabeth of Hungary lived a royal life of service. Having been born and married into the upper classes, she spent her days feeding the poor, and working in a hospital she had built. Any spare time she spent in prayer. She was one of many good rulers of this age, who took the gospel to heart and did not allow status to confine their ability to serve Christ through the poor.
When a man escaped his hellish life in a Nazi death camp in 1941, ten men were to pay the price for his freedom by slow starvation. One man was anguished over his wife and children. Nazi ears were deaf to his pleas, but another prisoner stepped forward immediately to take his place. He was Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest, incarcerated for concealing Jews in his monastery. After having spent his whole life evangelizing through every means of media, he offered himself up in a final gesture of agape. The horror of inhumane imprisonment did not dull the shine of his love for God and God’s people.
In 1865 the emancipation act released the African Americans of the Deep South. The freed slaves’ lives were not easy and one man donated the rest of his life to giving them a solid foundation with which to take their new place in society. Booker T Washington built an academy and worked tirelessly to give his people the best practical and academic tools for life as freedmen. Thousands of slaves graduated to a productive life. Always, he referred to his Christian faith as his focus and goal in life.
In the early 1920s a young, bohemian agnostic acquired a back alley abortion that broke her heart, the cap on her morally feeble lifestyle. Although her life was devoted to social justice, she was operating outside of any bond with Christ. Later she came to believe that "worship, adoration, thanksgiving, supplication ... are the noblest acts of which we are capable in this life." She continued to work for the poor in New York City, establishing various organizations, some of which remain in operation today. Dorothy Day was brave enough to shake free of the bonds of secularism and offer her work over to Christ.
“Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days…
prosper the work of our hands for us, Lord.
Prosper the work of our hands!” Psalm 90:14-17