I have to admit that this is a conglomeration. I have had several things in the last 24 hours that have pushed me in this direction. The title is actually from the Daily Bread e-mail I got this morning which helped me kind of solidify my thoughts.
In Sunday School yesterday we got to talking about ministry and loving the people around us. We talked about how I believe that the opposite of love is not hate, but rather apathy. To not care about what happens to someone is worse than to want ill for them - in my opinion. We talked about how hard it can be when we are stretched so thin and then find someone in need. Someone who could use our help. Someone we want to help. I then told some great young adults that they would never be happy with the results. Because their hearts will want to help everyone, but the only way to help someone new, once you are already stretched thin, is to sacrifice someone or something else. There is no happy answer because something is sacrificed.
We also talked about the fact that God might call us and move us to truly sacrifice ourselves for the people around us. Maybe that person, or those people, are why God has us on earth and He wants us to use ourselves up. To be God's tool for them. To burn bright and hot and then burn out. If that's God's plan then we should never balk at it.
I pointed out that having a spouse and children simply makes this harder because you always feel a mixed loyalty to ministry and my family. STOP. Don't judge yet. I know full well that my family is my ministry, but I also know that God's plan may not be about me....and it may not be about my family. God may call me to burn myself up for someone other than my family and my family may suffer for it. I pray deeply that He doesn't, but I want His plan for my life...not mine. So, if it's about God's glory....then it's about God's glory and not my preferences!!
A few other things kept driving my thinking. Sermon yesterday morning, devotional last night, the cover of a song I heard on Facebook, etc. Finally, I got the Our Daily Bread e-mail this morning and it was talking about a man who spent his whole life working hard to provide for his family. He promised to slow down but never did. He finally came home and was excited to share the news of his newest promotion....but the house was empty. The kids had grown and left home and the wife was off working in her own career. He had no one to share the success with.
Ecclesiastes 4 talks about how it is a fool who doesn't do any work (vs. 5)...but that it is better to have a little leisure than only work because you strive after wind (vs. 6). It then continues (vs. 7-12) and talks about the importance of relationships and that a life of work, without relationships, makes no sense and is really meaningless.
Here is where I'm at though. Who exactly am I working for? Am I working for myself? For my family? For my church and its people? Am I working to get a great house or buy a nice car? Or, am I working for a God who loves me? Who died for me before I was born and who knows better than any human how to give me good gifts? A God who has an ultimate plan that just happens to involve hard things in life for us so that we can learn and grow?
I have no desire to sacrifice my family in the service of my God. In fact, I truly believe that God won't have me do that because that would damage my testimony and my ministry all on its own. However, just because I don't think He will, doesn't mean He won't. I simply do not know all of god's plans.
What is more important in my life? Who is it, that I truly, honestly, work for?? Who do you work for?
To God be the glory!!
In Sunday School yesterday we got to talking about ministry and loving the people around us. We talked about how I believe that the opposite of love is not hate, but rather apathy. To not care about what happens to someone is worse than to want ill for them - in my opinion. We talked about how hard it can be when we are stretched so thin and then find someone in need. Someone who could use our help. Someone we want to help. I then told some great young adults that they would never be happy with the results. Because their hearts will want to help everyone, but the only way to help someone new, once you are already stretched thin, is to sacrifice someone or something else. There is no happy answer because something is sacrificed.
We also talked about the fact that God might call us and move us to truly sacrifice ourselves for the people around us. Maybe that person, or those people, are why God has us on earth and He wants us to use ourselves up. To be God's tool for them. To burn bright and hot and then burn out. If that's God's plan then we should never balk at it.
I pointed out that having a spouse and children simply makes this harder because you always feel a mixed loyalty to ministry and my family. STOP. Don't judge yet. I know full well that my family is my ministry, but I also know that God's plan may not be about me....and it may not be about my family. God may call me to burn myself up for someone other than my family and my family may suffer for it. I pray deeply that He doesn't, but I want His plan for my life...not mine. So, if it's about God's glory....then it's about God's glory and not my preferences!!
A few other things kept driving my thinking. Sermon yesterday morning, devotional last night, the cover of a song I heard on Facebook, etc. Finally, I got the Our Daily Bread e-mail this morning and it was talking about a man who spent his whole life working hard to provide for his family. He promised to slow down but never did. He finally came home and was excited to share the news of his newest promotion....but the house was empty. The kids had grown and left home and the wife was off working in her own career. He had no one to share the success with.
Ecclesiastes 4 talks about how it is a fool who doesn't do any work (vs. 5)...but that it is better to have a little leisure than only work because you strive after wind (vs. 6). It then continues (vs. 7-12) and talks about the importance of relationships and that a life of work, without relationships, makes no sense and is really meaningless.
Here is where I'm at though. Who exactly am I working for? Am I working for myself? For my family? For my church and its people? Am I working to get a great house or buy a nice car? Or, am I working for a God who loves me? Who died for me before I was born and who knows better than any human how to give me good gifts? A God who has an ultimate plan that just happens to involve hard things in life for us so that we can learn and grow?
I have no desire to sacrifice my family in the service of my God. In fact, I truly believe that God won't have me do that because that would damage my testimony and my ministry all on its own. However, just because I don't think He will, doesn't mean He won't. I simply do not know all of god's plans.
What is more important in my life? Who is it, that I truly, honestly, work for?? Who do you work for?
To God be the glory!!
No comments:
Post a Comment