October 16 | Moments Almanac | Planting

Welcome to Moments Almanac for October 16th. And on this day in 1758, a baby was born in Connecticut. His name was Noah Webster, and if you've ever looked up a word in the dictionary, you have him to thank. But dictionaries weren't the only words that mattered to Noah Webster. He believed there were words far more important, the words of Scripture. And late in his life he undertook what he called the most important enterprise of his life. He wanted to make the Bible understandable to ordinary Americans, not to change its message, not to diminish its authority, but to remove the obstacles of language that had accumulated over two centuries. The King James Bible had been published in 1611. It was beautiful, majestic, revered. But by Webster's day, some of its expressions had become difficult for readers to understand, so Webster went to work word by word, verse by verse, trying to preserve the sacred meaning while making the language clearer. In eighteen thirty three he published his revision, and almost nobody wanted it. The public largely preferred the familiar King James Version. Webster's Bible never gained widespread acceptance. Imagine that. A man who helped give America its vocabulary couldn't persuade America to accept his Bible. But maybe Webster understood something that success cannot teach us. The value of a work is not always measured by its reception. Sometimes obedience matters more than applause. Sometimes the assignment is simply to be faithful, and sometimes the harvest belongs to another generation. Now travel back with me to another october sixteenth. This one in eighteen twelve, far from Connecticut, far from America, far from anything resembling home. A young missionary named Henry Martin lay dying in the Ottoman town of Tokut. He was only thirty one years old. Martin had once imagined a very different kind of life. He was brilliant, educated at Cambridge. He could have pursued a comfortable and respected career, but something interrupted his ambitions. He heard about a missionary and the work of that missionary, William Carey in India, and then he read The Life of David Brainerd, a young missionary who poured out his life in service to Christ, and Martin began to wonder whether his own life might be meant for something more than personal achievement, and so he went to India, to unfamiliar languages, to difficult conversations, to people who had never heard the message of Jesus in words they could easily understand. He learned languages that most Englishmen of his day would never attempt. He worked on translations of the New Testament in Urdu and Persian. He wanted the people around him to encounter the scriptures in their own language, not merely to hear a foreigner's religion, but to understand the words for themselves. And the work cost him dearly. His health declined, his strength failed, still he continued. In Persia he labored over a revision of the Persian New Testament, and when the work was finished he began the long journey toward Constantinople. He never arrived. On october sixteenth, eighteen twelve, Henry Martin died in Tokat, thirty one years old, far from the people he loved, buried in an Armenian cemetery, no grand cathedral, no triumphant homecoming, no opportunity to see what generations might do with the scriptures he had translated. Just a young man who had given his life to a calling and then he was gone. Two men, two centuries, two very different lives, one born on October sixteenth, and the other one died on October sixteenth. Noah Webster and Henry Morton both believed that the words of God should be understood by the people who heard them. One worked among the English speaking Americans and the other among the peoples of India and Persia. One lived into old age, the other barely made it past thirty, and neither saw the kind of success he might have imagined. But, as Paul writes, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. We aren't responsible for producing the harvest. We are responsible for planting and watering and showing up, for doing God's work wherever he has placed us, and trusting him with what comes next. Perhaps that's something you need to hear today. Because maybe you're working on something that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Maybe you've poured yourself into a ministry, a relationship, a calling, or a dream, and you wonder whether any of it matters. Maybe you've planted seeds for years and all you see is dirt. But dirt isn't proof that nothing is happening. Sometimes the most important work takes place where nobody can see it. Under the surface, beyond the reach of applause, beyond the boundaries of our own lifetime. Noel Webster never saw his Bible become a household standard. Henry Martin never lived to see the full influence of his translators, but they gave what they had. And that's the lesson of October 16th. Faithfulness is not the same thing as visible success. What you're doing right now today, you might never see that harvest. And that's all right, because the harvest was never ours to control, only faithfulness. And that's Moments Almanac for October 16th. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments and share the grace.