“Well that was a waste,” I thought to myself when I woke up, blurry-eyed, exhausted, after realizing that the seven hours of contractions from the night before had produced … nothing. There was most assuredly still a baby inside my belly.
It was early, the 4th of July, and the night before I’d been up from 9pm-4am with intense contractions. Real ones. I’d been a bit confused, as they came every ten minutes, and never got closer together, never progressed like normal labor. What was this?
Well, of course many of you are probably smiling because you’re familiar with this phenomenon called ‘prodromal labor’ — I looked it up and “prodromal” comes from the Latin meaning, “A torturous teasing process where overtired and enormously pregnant women are kept awake all night in labor, with nothing produced from the process.”
Or something like that.
Actually I was encouraged to read up on it and realize it’s rather common. Reading dozens of comments from similar-situations made me sigh with relief, “So this is a thing!”
Of course pretty much every comment was basically a lament about how horrible this process was. Of a continual labor that produces nothing.
Of wasted work.
But there was a common thread among every woman who’d had this experience in the past–her actual labor was markedly shorter.
Aha, I thought to myself, it’s not all for naught.
Of course there are no guarantees, but it was definitely a consistent theme, and yet, the lamenting continued.
And of course I don’t know how this will all shake out–but I couldn’t help but think about this process of bringing life into the world, and how unique it is and yet not unique it is because it’s a picture of all our labors for the Lord, in one way or another.
Our Creator created physical processes as pictures of spiritual processes. This whole world is a glorious illustration, if we have eyes to see.
Did I?
While I woke sorely disappointed that first night, I found that the next time it happened, I didn’t experience the same frustration. Sure, the outdated term is “false labor” but there’s nothing false about joyfully, patiently enduring toil that is for the sake of a greater good.
That’s true life.
So the next time it happened, I grabbed my earbuds, swiped to my favorite worship playlist, and settled into several hours of lifting up praise to our good God. In the quiet, in the dark, paced by 10-minute contraction intervals, I was able to interact with my Father in sweet worship and prayer.
That’s no waste.
And then the next time it happened, I’m not kidding when I say I actually looked forward to it. I thought maybe it was the “real” thing, but when the contractions didn’t get closer together I knew it was just another round of practice. Another opportunity to remind myself, “Nothing’s wasted.” Every contraction, though it feels futile, is doing something. I’m learning. I’m growing.
And it’s preparing my body for the good work ahead … of bringing Justice into this world.
You’re doing it too, you know. Bringing Justice into this world. Every follower of Jesus is. We bring His Kingdom forth when we partner with Him, when we become co-laborers with Christ, yoked to Him, and we work to bring His truth, holiness, righteousness, justice, and love into this world.
Sometimes, doesn’t it seem like we wear ourselves plum out thinking some great work is being done, only to wake up the next morning and discover, in a sense, that the baby isn’t yet born? We’re plagued by a nagging sense of doubt:
Is any of this worth it?
Is this work a waste of time?
In the morning, every morning, I look at my fridge before pulling out the cream for my coffee, and there on that fridge reads one of my favorite verses:
Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:58)
Not. In. Vain.
Do you believe that, friend? That if we even give a cup of cold water to someone (bedtime with small children, anyone?!) in the name of Jesus, because we belong to Him, we will certainly not lose our reward (Mark 9:41).
The smallest acts. The simplest kindness. The most hidden obedience.
The middle-of-the-night labor that brings no baby.
Do we believe? It takes faith to keep joyfully engaging in labor that seems to not produce any results.
In whatever way you are tempted to give up, give in, quit, lament, because it just feels like your work is wasted.
Please don’t. Before we know it, Justice will come.
{Thank you for reading.}