to the stay-at-home-mom, the dad in the Army, the busy business lady, the kid still in college, the preacher, and the fill-in-the-blank.

by kendraannie

You probably have a title. A title that either you or society have bestowed upon you. I hope you know that these titles do not hold your identity or worth. You are more than that. You have a job. You all have the SAME job. Here is your job description:

Love the Lord. Share the gospel. Show others the love of the Lord. Show others the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. We could go into more detail but you get my point.

Sometimes we forget our job.

We become wrapped up in the work that we are or aren’t doing and we recklessly measure our work next to the work that others are doing.

We look at the family that is able to adopt and feel like a failure because we can’t afford to.

We look at the people that write books about Jesus and feel like a failure because we can’t even comprehend writing one chapter, let alone an entire book.

We look at the dad that works in his hometown and prays at dinner with his family every night and we feel like a failure because we are busy protecting our country and just can’t be there.

We look at the business lady that is working incredibly hard to help provide for her family and we feel like a failure because we can’t afford to send our kids to the same schools that she does.

We look at the person that runs a non-profit to help the homeless and we feel like a failure because we wouldn’t even know where to start.

We look at the mom that gets to stay home and be involved in the community and show her kids firsthand what it means to serve the impoverished and we feel like a failure because we spend 40 hours a week in an office and pray for time to make a meal and take a shower.

We look at the missionary who sold their home to be in a high crime area of the world to spread the gospel and we feel like a failure because we have a church we have to teach in in our low-crime all-American neighborhood every Sunday.

Etc.

We forget that God has predetermined the boundaries of our dwelling place. He has put us in positions that we are in so that we may do our real job. Share the gospel. Show others the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. Don’t compare your work to the work of others, because in the end, it’s not even about work. It’s about your heart being deeply rooted in Christ and the work is just the outpour of it all.

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I have a friend that has this beautiful outlook on the things we as believers do with our time. She works at a church youth group. She is literally paid to proclaim the name of Jesus. Her husband is a med student. He is not paid to proclaim the name of Jesus. But you know what she calls his time in medical school? His MINISTRY.

We need to listen to what God has called our ministry to be in our present situations. Where has He placed you? Who can you live out the gospel in front of? Co-workers? Your children? Your church? The homeless? The crime-ridden country across the ocean?

Your ministry may look completely different to that of someone else. But listen to God and not to the world. Listen to what He is calling you to. Try to see the big picture through His eyes.

God sees the tapestry being woven from the front. We are each pulling a thread and are so busy comparing the other threads to our own. It looks messy on this side of things. But to the Lord, it is a magnificent and intricately woven tapestry with all different sorts of threads.

When we see our lives through the eyes of God, the juxtaposition of different ministries becomes more clear and captivating. And our ministries finally become about Him.

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. –Ephesians 2:8-10

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.  For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,  so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: -Romans 12:3