December 23, 2008
I know What You Need
I helped my grandkids compile their Christmas gift list for family members before we went shopping at the Dollar Store. On the first outing I took three year-old Lydia and it didn’t take her long to get into the groove of being in total control. While she picked out taffy, hot sauce, rock salt and a jump rope, I put a post-it note on each item naming the intended recipient. When a rack of pet pooper-scoopers caught Lydia’s eye, she was insistent that Mama needed one for cleaning. I explained that these were for cleaning up after pets and that she did not have one. She stated, “I have a puppy (stuffed) and David has a kitty (also stuffed).” Undeterred she continued, “…and, I think Daddy needs one too.” In compromise I finally convinced her that if she purchased only one, maybe Mama and Daddy could share. Haven’t we all, at some time or another, received a gift we know we don’t need? Someone thinks they know how to help us utilize that gift, so they assign us to a ministry or volunteer us for a project. Our reaction can be a real test of believer maturity.
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4 comments:
Gail;
-----I wonder which believer’s maturity gets tested? Maybe more accurately queried, which gets tested the most? As evidenced in your little excursion through the Dollar Store with Lydia, you certainly were the more knowledgeable of you two at the pooper-scooper rack. But the fact that you even had her at the store testified to her greater knowledge at the taffy, hot sauce, rock salt, and jump rope racks. Maturity comes through humility. You were very humble in allowing your three-year-old granddaughter to participate in your decision making, for you certainly are the more knowledgeable in general, by far. But you saw her capacity to know her family members and their needs to be real enough to benefit your decisions, regardless of her youthfulness. From your knowledge of pooper-scoopers, Lydia could have advanced a degree in maturity by humbly receiving your correction of her misunderstanding.
-----Because the Lord gives us gifts individually does not validate their use independently. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (I Cor. 12:7) As your event at the store with Lydia illustrates, the gift becomes useful in the presence of a need for it. Because we are assigned to a ministry or volunteered for a project neither validates any particular gift we might have, nor the presence of any particular need for whatever gifts we actually do have. Validation of either happens only when both match each other.
-----The church has grown too much mentality that thinks the validation is made by the direction of the leaders. Indeed, if leaders are mature like you were, this would be correct. Mature leaders measure gifts and needs to orchestrate what they find. Immature leaders orchestrate programs and church paradigms, measuring gifts and needs for rejection or inclusion.
-----But all of this happens by our best ability to see, which we know by Paul’s testimony as being no better than through a mirror dimly. This is the greater need for humility, both in the follower and the leader. For the Lord’s ability to see gifts which on the surface do not appear to match needs is actual. So the next time you are having spaghetti at a bachelor’s house, do not ask what he strained it with, especially if he has a cat.
Love,
Steve Corey
Steve,
Too funny. I’m so glad you found Char and that she removed you from the list of eligible bachelors!
Gail
Gail;
-----Me too. And she's cooked the spahgetti ever after.
Steve
-----Seriously, folks, I’ve never used a pooper-scooper to strain spaghetti. We’re just having fun with a good analogy. But think about it for a moment. Even if that instrument had been used for its intended purpose, a good day’s soaking in pure Clorox would end the life of any bacteria or virus on it. Sure, there would still be some minute particles deeply embedded in microscopic cracks. And those, combined with the thought of where it has been, is what keeps even Cloroxed pooper-scoopers out of our spaghetti pots.
-----Jesus’ blood is like Clorox to the effects of sin. It does not remove the history of sin, but when one is thoroughly bathed in it, the destruction and propagation of sin is halted. Yet, although the repented homosexual, the repented drug addict, drunkard, and murderer are sterilized in Christ’s blood, there is still a tendency in us to receive them into the spaghetti pot with a certain yuk factor. This is sad.
-----But what really bothers me is the mentality of the contemporary/praise-only church paradigm. It welcomes the unwashed homosexual, the unwashed drug addict, drunkard, and murderer into the spaghetti pot. Yet, the blood-washed saints who still need to find reverence and sobriety in the pot’s boiling water, are treated like unCloroxed pooper-scoopers, because of the ambivalence they might generate in the welcome extended to these unwashed seekers.
-----Sincere fellowship of believers is vital for the health of the church and its testimony to His Word. Let us practice it.
Love,
Steve Corey
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