A plain ball-point pen in the hands of an average human being
can make some cute doodles, but a pen in Rembrandt’s hands can create a
masterpiece. It is not the pen – the instrument – that matters. Rather, it is
the Author and Creator who can wield a glorious work of art from simple tools.
When I was younger
– a child, a teenager, a new college grad – I had big dreams and goals for my
life. I observed grown-ups and thought to myself that few of them seemed to be
very goal-oriented or intentional about personal growth. Most of them just
seemed to live to get through each day. I have known a small handful of
individuals who have admitted to keeping a list of goals for their lives, often
arranged in categories, like physical, mental, spiritual, etc., and this has
impressed me. I have often thought to myself through the years that I did not
want to lose that sense of purposeful learning, growing, and striving.
Periodically,
maybe a couple of times a year, I pause to glance back through the recent past
and imagine the future, and I am inspired to work towards a particular goal.
Sometimes these goals are personal and internal, like training for a new goal
in my workouts or learning how to create a new crafty project. Increasingly,
the goals are spiritual, and I sense they are promptings from God, who is
always growing and changing me (Phil 1:6: “And I am certain that God, who began
the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished
on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”).
The theme of my
thoughts and prayers lately has centered around being an instrument of God.
Over the past few years as my relationship with God has developed, I have been
intentional about Him working *in* me; I have taken classes and read books to
learn more about God, to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to die to
myself and to live for Christ. While God has worked *through* me to some
extent, I have not been as intentional about allowing Him to truly and deeply
use my life.
Providentially, as
I have been praying through these thoughts over the past month or so, our
pastor’s sermon this weekend focused on this very issue. He quoted 1
Thessalonians 2: “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s
Good News but our own lives, too.” I do not wish to just learn about God and
allow Him to change me, though I do want to continue to be intentional in that
way, and I do not desire for God to use only my skills, but I want Him to use
my life. This year, I want to focus on intentionally becoming God’s instrument.
As I have begun
thinking this way, God has revealed to me several occasions where to say “yes”
would be to serve another person, yet because of my selfishness and desire to
avoid discomfort, I am tempted to say “no.” What kind of ambassador for Christ
am I if I am praying that God would use me, yet the moment it infringes on my
personal comfort, I shy away? I am thankful God is revealing these occasions to
me.
I
have been reading the book “Instruments in the Redeemers Hands,” and Paul David
Tripp, the author, writes that “everybody ministers and everybody needs
ministry. . . I need to wake up in the morning and say, ‘God, I am a person in
desperate need of help. Please send helpers my way and give me the humility to
receive the help you have provided.’ And I need to pray further, ‘Lord, make me
willing to help someone else see himself as you see him today.’” That passage
is powerful to me. I want to be God’s instrument to help others see themselves
as God sees them