Waiting For Your Ministry
The Quest For Fulfillment
A lowly ministry?
The gifts of the Spirit arm us for active duty. The Spirit fits us out with that particular mix that suits our individual call. Yet we usually eye such gifts as evangelism, prophecy, teaching, miracles, and ignore the other half helping others, administration, showing mercy, giving, serving. You may even feel compelled to check the Bible before believing they belong alongside the attention-grabbing charismata. (Romans 12:7-8; 1 Corinthians 12:28)
The way we revere a few gifts and denigrate the rest, youd think the ideal body of Christ consisted of a giant set of flapping gums, a fingernail emitting divine bolts of power, and a few emaciated odds and sods.
Is there really such a thing as a lowly ministry? Might it not be that the only thing that can make a ministry mediocre is a mediocre effort? In the context of ministry, Paul speaks of striving to excel. (1 Corinthians 14:12 Amplified Bible many versions are similar) The pursuit of excellence is a challenge from the throne of God to every Bible-believing Christian.
Do small things as if they were great, because of the majesty of Christ, counseled Hudson Taylor. He said we should even hang up clothes, wash, dress and comb our hair in a way to use to the full measure of ability which God has given us to the glory of his holy name. I was so impressed I chose a likely spot on the floor, rummaged through two dirty shirts, assorted books, three socks and a shoe, finally found a pen, blew off the fluff and recorded the quote. (My special gift is the ability to encourage people come to me thinking they are the worlds worst and leave greatly encouraged.)
If you are called to be a cleaner then rise to that challenge with the grace of Strauss, the flair of Michelangelo, the persistence of Edison and the dedication of Jessie Owens. Polish with the love of a mother, the care of surgeon, and the joy of a lover. Pour your soul into your work till it gleams with heavenly glory; till God can look at your floors and see his face in them; till all of heaven exalts you as an example of what a cleaner should be.
Hopelessly idealistic? You need a concrete example. (Thats a cue to grab your nerve tablets. As spelled out earlier, I feel no obligation to limit illustrations to Christian or non-controversial figures.)
Long before he was known to television viewers, Mr. T wanted to become a body guard. So he resolved to become the worlds best. A few paragraphs could never do justice to his dedication to that goal.
Two hours every day of every week he scourged his flesh with a grueling physical work-out, emphasizing both speed and endurance. He purchased books about police work and wrote to security organizations for further information. He went to seminars, workshops, law enforcement schools. He studied other bodyguards and observed special security personnel guarding heads of state. For increased experience, he did security jobs for free. Nearly everyone in the business said first aid knowledge was unnecessary. Mr. T thought otherwise, so he became a security guard in a city hospital. He was promoted, and then signed up with the National Guard Military Police for further training. So fierce was his determination that out of six thousand men he was nominated top trainee.
One of his clients was world boxing champion Leon Spinks. Mr. T spent two days before Spinks arrival ensuring the hotel was secure. The limo was already parked in a guarded garage nearby. He placed ten traps around it for additional security and still took time out to ensure no one had approached the car. Twice in one night he examined it. The other night he slept in it so no one could time his security checks. This was only a facet of his labors those two days, typifying his meticulous devotion to protecting his clients.
Everything down to his dress and deportment was immaculate. Here was a man who respected his clients confidentiality, a man who could not be bought or distracted, a man of solid integrity. On assignment he would transmute into a machine scanning every source of danger, a computer out-foxing the most cunning assailant, a human shield.
Ill give my life protecting yours, he guaranteed his every client. If theres a bullet, my body would take it. If theres a knife, it would plunge through me.
How does your dedication compare?
The standard and status of nursing rocketed because Florence Nightingale brought a sense of Gods call to a job that had been regarded as little better than prostitution. Edith Schaeffer, wife of Francis and hostess of the Christian chalet LAbri, believed table settings could be elevated to an art form. The world has yet to see how you can transform the task before you.
The world marvels at the work of a genius. It is even moved by someone who overcomes severe handicap to do something a normal person could do. But though the world misses it, ordinary people are just as capable of heroics.
Paul White later to became renowned through his Jungle Doctor books wanted to become a medical missionary. His financial predicament made it essential that he obtain a scholarship to pay for his medical studies. This necessitated being ranked in the top two hundred students in the final year high school exams in his home state of New South Wales, Australia. He came one hundred and ninety-eighth. To add to the drama, to attain the mark that barely enabled him to scrape in, he had not only studied feverishly, he had repeated his entire final year at high school. His grades the first year were too poor. Now to turn this into a thriller, read the conditions of the scholarship: it would terminate the moment he failed just one examination, or part thereof, in any of the six years ahead of him. In his third year, over half of the students failed. With a pass mark set at fifty, he scored fifty, fifty, and fifty-one. He had pushed himself to the limit and he still had three more years to go.
Paul White might have had unremarkable ability but, to me, his graduation is a wonder equal to an armless woman using her mouth and feet to change her babys clothes; as sensational as a man walking on Mars.
Rarely in life do we have the precise measures of achievement
that students have, but like White, we can grasp the hand of Jesus
and teeter on the edge of our ability with the daring of a tight-rope
walker, to the hushed delight of angelic throngs.
Gods favorite people
God must love ordinary people because he made so many of them. We laugh. But the truth is profound.
From tongue-tied Moses (to er is human) to cave-mouth Peter; from down-in-the-mouth Jonah to high-as-a-kite Noah; (Noah embarrassed himself by getting drunk (Genesis 9:21)) from Job in his trouble-bath to Mordecai having the last laugh, the Bible bristles with ordinary folk who achieved extraordinary things for God. And you were born to continue this tradition.
If to the world you seem insignificant, it merely intensifies Gods longing to raise you high. (This common theme in Scripture is worthy of close examination: Job 5:11; Psalm 113:7-9; Isaiah 40:4; Ezekiel 17:24; 21:26; Luke 1:52-3; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
Recall the Messiahs birth. The leaders, the teachers, the theologians, and the priests, were oblivious to it. Heaven shared the news with shepherds at work; with old, temple-bound Anna; (Luke 2:8-18; 36-38) and with wise men from the east. The latter presumably werent even Jews.
It was the common people who heard this Man gladly. (Mark 12:37 b) And it was from their ranks that he handpicked the ones to fire the world with his glory. He chose hotheads with provincial accents, a tax man a small-time turncoat any self-respecting citizen would spit on and logheads with the stench of fish on their callused hands.
Christ was continually aware of the invisible people, whether it was a despised tax collector peering through the leaves, or an unclean woman pressing through the throng; a wild-eyed madman in the Decapolis back-blocks, or a luckless loner at the pool; a sightless misfit, or a stinking leper; a cripple, or a mute. (Luke 19:2-9; 8:43-48; 7:11-15; 21:1-4, 8:27 ff; John 5:2 ff) To a tired and hungry Jesus, befriending a spurned woman giving hope to a Samaritan living in shame was more important than food. Societys rejects warmed his heart.
It seemed wherever there was a paltry act of kindness youd find religious people simmering with contempt, and Jesus glowing with admiration. A pauper slipping a pittance into the offering, (Mark 12:41-44) a street womans pathetic washing of his feet, (Luke 7:36-50) a boys fish sandwiches, (John 6:9-11) thrilled him. Mary just sat on the floor in rapt attention. That was enough to fill him with praise. (Luke 10:39-42)
Jesus was forever shocking his observers by selecting non-entities for special attention. Society saw a dirty beggar, a nauseating blotch on the neighborhood, a curiosity for theological debate (is it right to heal on the Sabbath? who sinned, he or his parents?). Jesus saw a worthy recipient of his powerful love; a precious work of God brimming with beauty, dignity and heart-wrenching need; someone to die for. While crowds turned up their noses, he poured out his heart. The masses tried to silence blind Bartimeus, the loud-mouthed groveler. (Mark 10:46-52) They sneered at Zacchaeus, the money-grubbing runt who soon towered over them by displaying exceptional generosity. (Luke 19:2-8) His followers wanted to push aside snotty children. (Mark 10:13-16) They opposed the Canaanite woman whose incessant nagging was driving them to distraction. (Matthew 15:23) No one could guess who Jesus would next honor. It was sure to be some faceless loser they had not even noticed, or an embarrassing nuisance they wished would skulk away.
Jesus came to show us the Father. (John 14:9) Today, the religious world still looks at the big names, while God treasures the unknowns. He delights to endow with eternal grandeur their simple acts of service.
From the time Mary, just a housewife, mothered the Son of God, and the worlds greatest Teacher spent five or six times longer as a carpenter than as a teacher, humanity has had living proof that the mundane can be holy.
The world is filled with Gods undercover agents ministers of the gospel who have successfully infiltrated enemy territory using all sorts of ingenious covers housewife, plumber, bus driver . . .
One of the most powerful influences in evangelist D. L. Moodys life was the now-famous statement, Moody, the world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to him. The words that moved the man who moved the multitudes was uttered by a butcher.
In Argentina, around-the-clock pray-ers do battle in what is possibly one of the most powerful centers of prayer earth has seen. Some independent observers have concluded that it is bolts from this continual prayer storm that fuel the massive Argentine revival and spill over to the rest of the world. The participants are 2,000 prisoners.
Brother Andrew, Gods Smuggler, tells of a girl who became a Christian because he obeyed the Spirits prompting not to share the Gospel with her. He was in the ideal position to witness, but his Spirit-led refusal to exploit it, seized the girl with fear that she was becoming past hope. This moved her, like nothing else could, to give her life to the Lord.
The journalist who found Livingstone and was converted by him, initially grabbed headlines and published a book about his adventure. It is not this that interests me, however, but a letter Stanley wrote some years later. According to a modern appraisal of missionary history, this solitary letter, published in a newspaper, did more for the cause of missions than many missionaries have achieved in a lifetime.
Try not to underestimate Gods ability to use for his glory, even the most trivial things you do. (Id like to say never underestimate it, but thats a tall order when living within you is the One whose power surpasses our wildest hopes. (Ephesians 3:20)
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