I went into the top field at half past five one morning in May and did something that took about two minutes, and there was nobody there, and there is no way anybody will ever know about it except that I am writing it down now.
I am not going to say what it was. I want to be honest that this is partly because it is small enough that a reader would think less of it than it deserves, and partly because saying it would put a person in it who has not agreed to be in it.
What I will say is that it was a thing I had been not doing for about eleven weeks, and that doing it took two minutes, and that I went out early specifically so that nobody would be about.
Here is the question I want to take seriously, because a child asks it and an adult carries it and neither of them ever gets an answer.
Does it count if nobody saw it.
I think a person is supposed to say obviously it does, briskly, and move on, and I do not think that is good enough. Because the truth is that some part of every single one of us is keeping a record with an audience in it, and a thing done at half past five in an empty field does not go into that record at all, and a person feels the difference.
I felt the difference. I walked back down that field and there was no lift in it. Nothing. I made a cup of tea and did the milking and the day went on exactly as it would have gone on if I had not done it.
And about three weeks later I noticed that I was different in a small specific way that I could not have predicted and would not have been able to describe in advance, and I have no proof of any kind that the two are connected.
Toby knows nothing about any of this and never will. Bucky was in the yard when I came back in and looked at me the way he looks at everything, which is the only witness a thing like that ever gets.
The promise attached to an unfinished job
David hands the temple over to Solomon and the sentence he ends on is worth having by heart.
Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 28:20)
And do it. Three words in the middle of the encouragement that turn the whole thing into an instruction rather than a mood.
And then the promise, and the last clause of the promise is the one nobody quotes: until thou hast finished all the work. The company is guaranteed for the duration of the job rather than for the good bits of it.
You are accompanied for the length of the work rather than for the moments anybody is watching, and 1 Chronicles 28:20 puts the promise on the whole duration. It is the Holy Spirit who makes that read as a practical arrangement rather than as a slogan.
Most of that work was going to happen with nobody important in the room. Temples are built by people carrying stones, over years, and the vast bulk of that job was hours nobody wrote down.
You have not been left out of the promise by working where nobody is. The written word attaches the company to the work rather than to the occasion, and His Spirit is what makes that reach a field at half past five.
What God is described as seeing
There is a phrase used about God that is easy to read past and is the answer to the whole question.
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)
Run to and fro. It is a scanning word. The picture is of something actively going about looking, rather than of somebody sitting still and being generally aware.
And what it is looking for is not achievement. It is a heart that is set right toward Him, which is a thing that has no external appearance at all and cannot be photographed.
You are being actively looked for rather than passively known about. 2 Chronicles 16:9 puts the eyes in motion, and the Spirit of God is what makes being searched out feel like being wanted.
Which means a field at half past five is not a gap in the coverage. It is closer to being the specific conditions.
You have been seen in the one place there was no other witness. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says the whole earth and does not exempt anywhere, and the Holy Spirit is the one who moves that from a chronicle into a walk back down a field with no lift in it.
So here is the answer I have to the question a child asks and an adult carries.
You are not counted by whether there was anybody there, and 2 Chronicles 16:9 has the eyes going to and fro across the whole earth looking for a heart rather than for a performance. The Holy Spirit is what keeps that from being a comfort and makes it a fact about how the looking works.
There was no lift. That is the honest report and I would not leave it out, because the version where a man does a secret good thing and walks back down the field glowing is not what happens and would make a reader think their own experience was a failure.
You have been accompanied for the duration rather than for the occasion. 1 Chronicles 28:20 promises company until the work is finished and does not promise a feeling anywhere in the sentence, and His Spirit is what makes duration a better promise than a moment.
And this is for whoever is reading it out tonight, who has their own half past five and has never told anybody. You were never going to get the record you were quietly hoping for. 2 Chronicles 16:9 is looking for a heart set right rather than for an event, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes being looked for at that depth better than being seen.
Declare this over yourself
Say it out loud. You are in Christ and Christ is in you, so the authority to speak over an unwitnessed thing is genuinely yours, delegated and never invented. God's eyes are described as running to and fro through the whole earth looking for a heart, so speak to the question: you have standing to address it because He is the one doing the looking. An ambassador carries the King's word and never his own policy, so say what God has said and leave the outcome to Him. Every line below is 1 Chronicles 28:20 and 2 Chronicles 16:9 handed back in your own voice, and it is His Spirit, not your volume, that makes saying it a receiving.
- Question of whether it counted, you are answered. The Word of God says the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, and that is a scanning word rather than a sitting still word.
- Record I keep with an audience in it, you are finished in the name of Jesus. I am seen and I am accompanied, because 1 Chronicles 28:20 promises company until the work is finished rather than while anybody is looking.
- Father, You have never once required a witness before something counted. I receive that today, and I thank You that Your word says You are looking for a heart set right toward You, which is a thing nobody could photograph.
1 Chronicles 28:20
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