There are mornings when I simply feel like I have NOTHING left to give.
I’m banking on the fact that it’s just THIS morning, and not two mornings from today, when this appears on my blog for the first time.
At that time, I’ll be in Victoria Corner, New Brunswick.
Yes, it’s a blip on the map.
I reckon, if you blink as you’re driving through, you might miss it.
However, it’s home to a Bible college that graduates students who will impact their world: New Brunswick Bible Institute.
These students might become pastors, associate pastors, worship ministers, youth leaders, children’s ministry directors…
…very few go on to become doctors, attorneys, political leaders….occupations we might connect with being world changers.
But, they will change the world, nonetheless, each in their own way.
So, on this morning, when I have nothing, and I simply sit here at the computer thinking about what I don’t have to give to make a difference, some of my own words have come back to bite me.
I do have something to offer.
Something that makes a difference.
My life stories with Jesus are of use to Him.
This is why I have come all the way to Victoria Corner to share, along with Bay, for their Spring Conference (not just for students, but open to men and women around Canada, and the Eastern States).
The Apostle Paul reminded me of this truth, as I moved my eyes from the blinking cursor on the white screen, to the next passage of Scripture that’s open in my Bible. Wouldn’t you know it’s also a passage that speaks of hope? Of course, it is…
Here’s what I read:
Paul,
(substitute the name, Peg, here)
a slave of God, and a messenger of Jesus Christ.
I have been sent to proclaim faith to God’s chosen, instructing them in the knowledge of the truth that shows them how to live godly lives.
This truth gives them hope (an internal confidence that is lived externally) in their eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised…
It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him.
Titus 1:1-2, 3b
The Apostle Paul had such a big personality.
Wherever he went he left his mark in a huge way.
Sometimes, it landed him in prison.
Sometimes, people chucked stones at him.
Sometimes, they pressed so hard, he nearly landed at he bottom of a cliff.
But at all times, Paul’s life and his words made a big difference.
He was truly a man on a mission…he saw himself as God’s slave.
Not just any slave, forced into service, but a “doulas,” one voluntarily compelled to devote themselves to another’s will.
For Paul, that meant he was God’s messenger.
Wherever he went, and whatever happened while he was present, he was ALL THERE to do exactly what God had sent him to do.
God’s message for Paul:
to speak the story that gave him HOPE…a story that would deepen the roots of God’s chosen into the soil of faith, spur them on to greater knowledge, and stronger HOPE.
It was a message that perpetuated itself…all the way down through the ages to me.
Thank you, Paul.
I do not have Paul’s big personality.
Others, who have been called to do what I do (and off the top of my head I can use all my fingers to count some), also have big personalities.
My calling is proportionately smaller…right in line with who I was created to be…with the gifts that God’s grace instilled in me at my new birth.
I’m perfectly ok with that (frankly, I don’t want the responsibility that comes to those with the big personalities)…
Paul’s call is my call in my own way;
and, yet, that doesn’t mean the influence has to be small…
…because the same Lord who called Paul, called me with the same message, using my own stories;
and, HE IS SO BIG.
Now, I get the opportunity, as you read this, to be a perpetuator of hope to God’s chosen who may be spurred on by my stories.
Guess what?
You are called to do the same.
Go back and read the words Paul penned to Titus again.
Now substitute your name in that passage.
Yep, it belongs there!
Go and tell.
