There
is a scenario that plays itself out around here...I suspect you can
relate. Say you're working on something really exciting, like
laundry. The basket is filled with warmness and you're just beginning to
switch yet another load of the wash over to the dryer when one of your children
cheerfully comes up and asked if help is wanted. Help? Sure.
A conversation like this may be involved:
Child: “Can I help
you?”
Parent: "Yes,
would you please run this hamper down to my bed, dump it out and bring the
hamper back to me?
Child (with pouty
face): “But I wanted to empty the washer.”
Parent (not
snarkily, but kindly - in an attempt to help the child understand what their
less than cheerful whine of a response is really communicating): "Do you
want to help or do you just want to do what you want to do and call it
helping?"
Child: "Sorry
Mommy, I'll run the hamper down."
Personalizing this
a bit, I asked myself the question: As I run to my Father to offer myself in
service, how quick am I to cheerfully do what He asks of me? Do I go to
Him in prayer with my preconceived ideas of how I want to serve? Do I
pout or make excuses when the opportunity He's giving me isn't what I
wanted?
One time springs
to my memory. In my newlywed days I had some time on my hands. Mike
and I were praying about various ways I could use that time to minister to
others. Very clearly, almost as if the idea was being pressed physically
upon my chest, the thought of developing relationships with some elderly women
at a nearby nursing home and reading the Scriptures to them kept overtaking the
thoughts of other things that felt much more appealing to me. I came up
with all kinds of excuses...my sister had worked at that nursing home when I
was a young girl and I would sometimes run her lunch over to her...it stunk in
there...just sayin'. I felt awkward around older people. "I'm
not the one for this job," I told God day after day. I wanted to start a
Bible study with some high school girls or you can fill in the blank with just
about anything except what I felt like God was asking me to do. I'm
pretty sure I heard my Father ask me: "Do you want to help, or do you just
want to do what you want to do and call it helping?" Now this is a
little tricky because there is no "thus sayeth the Lord" verse in the
Bible telling you "do this, not that" in situations like this, but I
kid you not...as Mike and I prayed, we both "knew." After
weeks, I finally walked over to the nursing home to introduce myself and that
began a most incredible journey...the truth of the matter is that God knew I
needed these older ladies in my life as much if not more than they needed
me. But that's a story for another time.
I think of the
laundry example above and so often the things I ask of my children frankly fall
into the utilitarian category...the job just needs to get done and they are
able bodies. Of course I care about THEM, and the jobs are also about training them up to love and serve God, but with God, He's so clearly and perfectly transforming us, making us more and
more Christ-like. That is the front burner issue. He's building His kingdom and preparing His
bride. All the opportunities He puts before us to serve are opportunities
for us to trust Him and to display His glory and grace working in and through
us. Let's trust that He sees the big picture...trust that He loves us
with passion...trust that as He asks us to bend low it is because that is His
way of lifting us up.
"For whoever
desires to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." - Matthew 16:25
Do you want to
help?
What is God asking
you to do today? Are you pouting or
jumping into His plan?
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