When’s the last time you gave everything you had? Have you ever been in a class or on a field of play or on a mission trip or in a worship and given your last ounce of effort? It’s a rare thing to watch and an even more rare thing of which to be a part. I’ve been there a few times.

I witnessed such an effort in Monterrey, Mexico. I was there when they showed us the roof of a tiny little mission on the back side of that huge city. The place was not much bigger than a large living room. The most inexpensive way to make a roof for the building was by forming it up and pouring it with concrete. Problem was that we had to mix the mud on the ground, by hand, shovel it into five gallon buckets, and pass the buckets up a series of scaffolds until it reached the crew on the roof who would then pour the concrete into the form. We only had a few hours. We had 20 students; ten guys and ten girls. 2000 square feet of forms waited for filling.

Mixing concrete in Mexico is back-breaking work. You have to haul, five gallons at a time, the water used to mix the cement. The rock, sand, concrete mix, and water are poured onto the ground. You mix about 100lbs. at a time. You must shovel all the mix into a pile and then begin to pour the water into the pile. As the water is poured, some workers start to rake the mix back and forth with yard racks. When the mix reaches the proper consistency it is shoveled into buckets and the buckets begin the ascent to the roof. This process is continued until the goal is reached.

The team began working at 9am. The girls were hauling water and racking. The guys were shoveling and hauling cement to the roof and pouring it out. It wasn’t long until the guys began to give out. The girls wanted to step in but the guys’ egos were having a bit of a problem handling that so they sucked it up and worked on for another thirty minutes or so. It quickly became apparent that we were going to have to spell eachother. The guys couldn’t keep up the pace needed to complete the job. The girls began to replace the guys on the shovels. They worked feverishly to keep up with the bucket brigade. The ladies were amazing. They would shovel until their muscles failed and then a guy would step in. It wasn’t long until they had formed partnerships with someone and they were all trading off. The guys on the roof got in on the rotation and so there was a constant flow of changeing positions and taking breaks. Everyone was sweating and straining and laughing and shouting instructions and encouragement. It was a symphony of labor.

The last bucket reached the top of the roof at 2pm. Steven Parker poured it into the form and we all celebrated. We were the nastiest looking, happiest group of day laborers you have ever seen. Some of you have seen the pictures. It’s the one where Jason has his shirt off and we all look completely disgusting. And everyone is smiling!

“Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work wholeheartedly, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God.” (Eph. 6.5-8a)

There are very few words in the dictionary that have only one definition. Wholehearted is one of those words. Wholehearted – with all one’s energy, enthusiasm, etc.; sincere. When’s the last time? When’s the next time?