Mr. OverKill has wanted to be a missionary since he was a child. I have always been in awe of missionaries, tending to put them upon a pedestal. It’s been neat for us over the last year to get to know a couple who are missionaries in Niger. They are roughly our age, and have two young children. What was cool about getting to know them is seeing that they are normal people, with normal people-type problems. I began to wonder if the Lord was calling us into the mission field. But have been seeing clearly over the past month or so, that I am already serving the Lord, but my “mission field” isn’t a far away place, it’s right here! The Lord has given me so many opportunities to minister to others, to love them, help them, pray for them. The coolest thing that happens, is that it draws me closer together with those around me.
We each have a different job to do in the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians chapter 12 speaks at length about this concept. Verse 5 and 6 say:
There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
It would be silly for us to all be Sunday School teachers, but no one to minister to the sick. Or for us to all be missionaries, but none ministering to the body. I have struggled in this area, ever since Mark Cahill visited our church and challenged us to be sharing our faith more than ever with a dying world. I thought, here am I stuck at home most days, raising my kiddos*. And so, I prayed and the Lord has given me many opportunities to share my faith!
You know what else He has done? He has given me more and more opportunities to be an encourager to those around me. As I’ve mentioned before, I am not a “people person” or a “in the center of attention” person, and as a result, I don’t typically have many friends. But since praying for the Lord to open up more avenues for me to be serving Him that has changed. I think I have more friends now, than ever before in my life, combined even! And I get to help them! I get to encourage them! I get to pray for them and cry with them and laugh with them, and share joy with them!
He has also given me this blog. Seriously, I know my blog is small potatoes compared to others, but there is NO WAY on earth I could talk to, share my faith with, or encourage 100 people (or 4 stalkers:) a day! But He has given me this place and this creative outlet to encourage those who would stop by.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:18-20
I do believe this commandment applies to me. I also believe right now the Lord has me working on the second half more than the first, the discipling and teaching (or encouraging) end.
Get ready, I’m finally getting to my point. We have to stop squeezing our square-pegged selves into round holes. We are all “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God the Creator. He made you who you are, to accomplish His plan through your unique talents and abilities. There would be no blessing if I tried to do Mark Cahill’s job, and he tried to do mine (Think about that for a second, it’ll make you laugh). God has purposed us differently, yet we are still working toward the same goal – “the same God who works in all.”
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. I Corinthians 12: 15-18
We all have a purpose, and we need not waste time trying to do another member’s job! He has us just where He pleases! Whether in China, Niger, Florida, whether at home, in the workplace, on the mission field, whether man or woman, we are all important in God’s plan and in God’s place!
*I still firmly believe that raising my kiddos is my number two earthly job, number one being a wife to Mr. OverKill