Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Your Own Gift

Do you ever wish you had the talent and influence of your favorite Christian singer or author, or even the head pastor of the local megachurch? Do you feel guilty because Martin Luther began the day with three hours of prayer, while you can hardly find an unbroken fifteen minutes? Do you wonder how the Lord can ever do anything through someone as ordinary as you?

Perhaps some of the early Christians, observing the great works and sermons of the apostles, wondered the same thing. "I can't perform miracles like John. I can't convert thousands with one sermon like Peter. What can God ever do through me?"

For one thing, He could start the church at Antioch, the first congregation to win significant numbers of non-Jewish converts and the one that gave the world the word "Christian." No names of the original founders are on record; they were simply "those who had been scattered by the persecution in [Jerusalem and were] telling... the good news about the Lord Jesus" (Acts 11:19:20, NIV). The result of what these "very ordinary" people did? "A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord" (v. 21).

We tend to discount anything that doesn't obviously shake the world. But Jesus Himself said our small acts of kindness are remembered in heaven (Mt. 10:40-42; 25:31-40). God is in the business of building not dazzling careers and earthly empires, but a spiritual Kingdom of pure souls. Our "little deeds," done in obedience to Him and for His glory, may make great leaps toward that end.

Provided we are wise enough not to pass opportunities by as "unimportant."

If you can't pray from morning to evening,
As you've heard some great saints would do,
You can work with one ear to God's calling,
Well alert to His leading for you.

If you can't write a Pauline Epistle,
If you can't equal Lewis or Stott,
You can send notes of hope to your neighbor,
Or show love to a soul life forgot.

If you can't hope to walk on the water,
If you can't speak like Billy Graham,
Be assured God has work for your talents:
So don't study another's exam!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your poem serves as a reminder for us all to use what we have in service to God. I appreciated learning who John Stott is, by your link in the poem. Someone worth emulating.

Thanks,
mona Follis