Are You Willing?

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom shall I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go?”And I said, “Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”
Isaiah 6:8 

I discovered, VERY early in Basic Training, when you Drill Sergeant asks for a volunteer it's best to volunteer or else you will be dropped for push-ups and THEN you will be voluntold.  I was reminiscing with a friend about those days, all we learned, all we endured, all the pranks, all the punishments, and then Joe asked me, "Why did you volunteer? Is sure wasn't for the money or the glamor, and there was no fame, so why did you volunteer?'  I thought about it because it had been a few years (ahem, ahem), and I said, "Because I wanted to become a better person."  Joe looked a bit stunned and said, "No, you bonehead, why did you volunteer for ministry?"

My first thought was, "You think I volunteered for ministry?" But I figured that would be the wrong approach.  I explained that ministry is something I knew, deep within me, that God has been preparing me for.  I told him that I was terrified and felt (still feel) terribly under qualified, but I trust and am still learning to trust God.

There is an adage which says, "God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called."  And it is true.  When God called Saul to ministry, Saul was not even remotely qualified.  He spent 3 years in the wilderness learning from God.  You see, God doesn't expect us to be perfect.  He knows quite well that we don't have all the answers or the ability or the courage or even a detailed diagram of His plan for us.  All God wants is for us to step up and say, "Here I am, I'll go."  Then God will take care of the rest.  We all have a mission.  We all have a ministry.  God has that planned for each of us, we need to be available.   

Be Careful Who You Let Close To You

It is better to take refuge in the Lord
    than to trust in people.

Psalm 118:8 

 

As a child, our family vacations were always times of learning.  I'll just admit it, I love the Southwest!  One of our family trips was to a place called Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico where we could see cliff dwellings and Native American ingenuity.  Our guide happened to be a Native American gentleman who had lots of stories, which also helped keep me from lagging behind because they were interesting and I didn't want to miss any part of it.

 

He told the story of a boy who went to a mountain top to have a spiritual vision.  When he got ready to go back down the mountain, a rattlesnake called to him and said, "Please, it's so cold up here.  Let me inside your shirt so I can stay warm and take me down the mountain out of this cold."  The boy refused, "But you're a rattlesnake!  You could bite me and kill me. No! I won't do it."

 

The rattlesnake continued to beg sounding more and more pitiful until finally the boy relented and said, "Okay, I'll take you down the mountain in my shirt.  BUT...You must PROMISE ME that you will do me no harm."  The rattlesnake promised and off they went back down the mountain.  When they reached the valley, the rattlesnake promptly bit the boy three times.  As the venom did its work, the boy looked at the snake with the light fading from his eyes.  The snake said, "Don't look at me like that.  You knew I was a rattlesnake when you let me next to you.  This is YOUR fault."

 

After that story, the gentleman said, "We have to be careful who we let close to us.  Not all you say nice things are our friends."  Which is true!  But there's also another lesson here, we have to be careful what we allow in our minds because our thoughts will turn into actions which will make or break our ministry.

Odd Ducks!

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

James 2:15-16

I am a FIRM advocate of St. Francis' approach to ministry: "Go out and PREACH the Gospel every day!  And if you must...use words."  As a Chaplain, I can tell you with quite the amount of certainty, we are called to be ODD DUCKS!  You see, it is not our job to show up on a scene, whip out our Bibles and begin preaching or conducting religious services.  We are expected to meet needs.  To be honest, there have been many times I have ridden with deputies or have been called to a scene and the first thing I am told is, "Don't God me!  I don't want to hear it!"  And I don't.  I will fetch some water, or some tissues, or hand out some Tootsie Rolls, of just sit there quietly.  

Think about the Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan.  What do you think would have been the wounded man's response had the Teacher of the Law or the Pharisee had arrived and started preaching to him?  Well, if I was the wounded man, I would be praying hard that I would bleed out or that the ambulance brakes might slip, just this once, and put those two chuckle heads out of my misery!  But it was the Samaritan who got the Chaplain's job right!  He didn't preach!  He didn't try to convert! He didn't try to deliver a message that would "rock your world."  Instead, he met them injured man's needs for aid and comfort.

When people are in crisis, they don't need or want a sermon!  When people are hurting they don't want to hear how God loves them!  When people are grieving, they don't want to hear the Gospel message (wonderful though that message is).  During the floods last October, people came together and brought food, water, clothing, and shelters were set up.  Many churches opened their doors to be places where people's need could be met.  But never once did I hear of a church that said, "You have to let us PREACH to you, PRAY with you, BAPTIZE you, and ADD YOU TO OUR MEMBERSHIP ROLLS, before we will help you!"

When people are hurting or in crisis, first we have to render aid.  THAT is our sermon!  We can pray silently for them while we are providing that bottle of water or that box of Kleenex.  Remember: "No one cares what you know (or what you have to say) until they know how much you care."

I have heard this over and over: "Not every preacher can be a Chaplain!"  And here's the part most of us don't get, being a Chaplain is everyone's job!  Not just mine.  We are called to meet people's needs, as best we can and let our actions be our sermon!

Sounds easy doesn't it?   Try it sometime.

 

What Child Is This?

A child is born to us, a son is given to us,
    and authority will be on his shoulders.
    He will be named
    Wise Counselor, Mighty God,
    Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 

 

When I was a child, I learned that God has a plan for each of us (whether we like it or not) and God's plan for us cannot me dodged, ignored, or thwarted.  It is God's job to get us to the point where His plan for us is fulfilled.  I thought THAT was a LOT of pressure to put on a kid!  I didn't like it one bit. 

 

When I read Isaiah's passage, look at all the pressure being put on this child.  "Authority will be on his shoulders"...that's quite the burden to carry.  "Wise Counselor"....wisdom is not easily come, and people expect you to dispense wisdom every time they ask for your counsel but if the counsel is off the mark, even once, you aren't deemed wise any more.  "Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace"....THAT is way more than I could imagine any child being able to grow into.

 

When I was about age 9, I felt God nudging me toward ministry.  This was NOT what I had planned for my life.  I wanted to be!  I wanted to be a pirate, a soldier, a writer, a dreamer, or pretty much ANYTHING outside of ministry.  I fought it tooth and nail.  I did things that I just knew would disqualify me from any sort of ministry.  And now...God let me wander through most of my life (thus far) as a soldier, a writer, a dreamer, the Butler to our greyhound Abby; God let me make the blunders and the mistakes, and the missteps, and let me fall flat on my face more than a few times...but through all the experiences I thought would completely disqualify me for ministry, God was actually shaping me to minister in a rather unorthodox way. God used my experiences to help others.

 

And when we look at the Child described by Isaiah, we see God in the flesh entering not only our world, but our lives as well.

 

This Christmas, it is my prayer for each of you to appreciate the experiences God has brought you through.  Be grateful for the lessons you have learned from them. And remember that God entered this world just as we did...as a child.  What Child Is This?  The Child is the King of Kings!