My son Zach spent his junior high and high school career running track and cross country. He was an excellent runner, breaking several school records.

Zach was usually one of the first three across the finish line. He could have easily gone about his business and ignored the rest of the runners. But he didn’t. Instead, he turned around and went to the sidelines cheering every single runner on until they, too, were done. Because he was a distance runner, sometimes this meant hanging around for as much as twenty minutes.

Zach’s humility and team-spiritedness make me think of Jesus’s parable of the master in Matthew 25 who left his servants in charge of his affairs. The master complimented the servant’s faithfulness by saying, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” — the same thing God will say to those us who are faithful until the day of judgment.

God cheers us on with a smile on His face and in His heart when we honor Him by living humbly and faithfully. When we do that, we can sing for joy, knowing our salvation is secure and that we, too, will one day hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”