I didn't begin this journey wanting to have an impressive job or an important job. Just a job. Some way that I might serve God and bring glory to His Name. Having been at home with the kids and out of the workforce for many years, I felt very much out of the loop. I simply didn't feel like there was much I could do that would benefit the Body of Christ. I'm behind the times in technology, disorganized, impulsive and impatient. I wasn't fishing for compliments; I simply didn't see how any of my skills could benefit my church.
Then the Handmaiden said: "Service to others is service to God. Other human beings are shown God's love and care for them through your willingness to help them."
And Rachel said: " Just hearing about your faith and what motivates you motivates others to search for God too."
And finally, Calvin said: "Just have a willing spirit to serve and God will guide and open doors for your unique gifts."
There were numerous other comments, but those 3 really got me thinking. I don't know if you'd call it a "forest for the trees" issue, but it got me to thinking about service in different terms, smaller, simpler terms. Maybe blogging about faith will be my area of service. Maybe talking to people about simpler lives is what I'm supposed to do. Maybe my open door isn't an open door at all...maybe it's Windows :)
Or maybe He has other plans for me. After a week of forwarded emails and wrong numbers, I finally found out about a new project getting started at church: a community garden. My church is set on approximately 40 acres of former farmland and they've set aside an area to create a vegetable garden that will benefit the elderly and local families through the Outreach ministry. Maybe my job is to feed people. Literally. Maybe this is where my ability to grow 3 pound tomatoes will come in handy.
I don't know where this ride is going, but I simply cannot wait to get there.
1 comment:
My week was so crazy I missed your other post when it came out the other day - the one on how we found out our spiritual gifts. Let me ask you a question? If you came upon a friend who had an accident and she was perfectly safe, but her car damaged, what would be your first instinct? What would you do first?
Listen to her? And cry a bit with her? (Mercy or Compassion)
Start pointing out all that she's going to learn from this? (Encouragement)
Would you be gabbing some tools to help get the car jacked up to fix the tire? (Service)
Perhaps you'd be on the phone contacting and coordinating emergency help? (Administration)
Do you instantly start thinking about how much money she's going to need and how much you can give her? (Giving)
Is you head spinning with all the physics of how this could have been avoided? (Teaching)
How you answer the question of which way you would respond, very well could be your spiritual gift. We tend to immediately fall into it without realizing it. You said yourself that you have certain tendencies that you automatically fall into.
I use to fight against my gift, because I wanted a different one. I have the gift of administration, but I longed for the gift of service because I thought it was more "spiritual". Finally I realized, it's not that I am not called to serve, but rather often God calls me to serve in the area of administration ( organizing people).
I LOVE the idea of the garden at church! Someone has approached me about this very thing. And I've been dragging my feet - why? Because my first thought is how can I do this all by myself? Silly me. I should know better by now. God may very well be prompting me to organize the people to pull this off! I need to pray more about it because life just seems to keep interrupting it, but it may just be a timing issue. Anyway, I pray God will help you see how He has gifted you because you can be CERTAIN that He has!!! It's not even that important that you KNOW what your gift is as long as you are busy loving Him and loving His people - and feeding them is very loving! (Matt. 25:34-36)
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