Identifying ministry can be an interesting challenge. Some find it easy. Perhaps you have always wanted to be a doctor or teacher or cake decorator. You put all your energy into achieving that goal. All the gifts and talents you have help you become the best in your chosen field.
More of us, I would guess based on the number of books on the subject, have a harder time figuring out what we should be doing. From “What Color is Your Parachute” to Bible studies focusing on finding your gifts, there are shelves and shelves of resources (secular and spiritual) to help us figure out just what we should be doing. And there is nothing wrong with that. We each need direction in our lives and want to know we are doing our best and using our gifts in the best possible way.
However, every so often God steps in and changes the direction of our life. There are many examples of this in the Bible. One is Esther. She had her life planned out as the nice Jewish wife of a religious Jewish man chosen for her by her uncle. ‘Good wife and mother’ was her idea of her ministry and calling. Then she was gathered up with other virgins to satisfy a foreign king’s desires.
She came to terms with her new life and as queen and favorite wife. No doubt she decided that her life would consist of being the sweetest and most gentle queen she could be in order to please him. Then she faced a test…Haman’s plot to have all the Jews in the kingdom massacred.
“Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this,” Mordecai tells Esther. He says she is in the right place to act and save her people. God has positioned her perfectly to be an instrument for God’s saving action. She has to accept her calling and act on it. So do you and I.
How we do this is not as important as accepting that we are the only one who can do exactly what we need to do in “such a time as this”. God has put each one of us in exactly the right place and this is exactly the right time to serve God. We may be the person to ‘give a cup of water’ for the sake of Christ or we may be the one who starts an orphanage. It might be that you are supposed to invite your neighbor to church or perhaps you have been asked to lead a Bible study and don’t think you can.
What you have to remember is: you are in exactly the right place to “move Jesus and his story further down the road.” Like Esther, God has positioned you perfectly “for such a time as this”.
Ministry is simply “Building up the Body of Christ to the Glory of God.” It is living out the Golden Rule and Great Commandment to the best of my ability and yours. How are you moving the kingdom down the road? Remember, your gifts are just exactly the ones needed to accomplish the ministry you find in your life today.
Next week we’ll have another Fall Meditation. See you then.
