My daughter recently told me she wanted to be something great when she was older. She's 11 now. My advice to her was right on, but I have to admit it is something that I struggle with to this day. So since I struggle to take my own advice I thought you might struggle with it as well. You see I want to be great too....and I am a grown up.
My advice on being great is simple. It is to do the little things well. It is to make every decision count no matter how small. Make every day intentional. Use the time God has given you on the earth to do all things well--even the insignificant. Sounds great...right?
In my prayer time this morning I was telling God how I just had had no time lately and felt overwhelmed with time constraint when before my eyes flashed the Facebook logo, the Twitter logo, my new Google Plus account and that all consuming Pinterest site that has my attention to see what Holiday decor I need to be planning. I had to repent. I had to confess that, in fact, I have more time than I would like to admit, but how I spend it might not be as God honoring as I would hope. I am missing the small things by doing my own things. The decision to stay on social media takes time from other areas of my life.
What would my day look like if I woke and thought "What does God want to use me to do today?" What if the answer was to stay home and catch up on my laundry because God knows that tomorrow I will get a call from a friend in crisis and my whole day will be spent there? What if God knows my husband really needs the laundry done because he is stressed at work and it makes him feel good to see all of his t-shirts in his drawer when he gets home? I don't know about you, but my "God complex" makes me only want to do the great things. I don't want to do the mundane. I want to sit the bench and wait on God to call me in for something great! Maybe God is waiting for me to get off of Facebook and seek out His plan for my day. With so many distractions in our world finding time to "fit God in" is becoming harder and harder.
I find it interesting that after Saul met Jesus on the Road to Damascus that he jumped in with both feet preaching in the local Synagogues where he was promptly run out of town. Paul was use to going big or going home. God sent him home and Paul spent nearly ten years in virtual isolation. I wonder if Paul's ego was still like his former Saul-self? I wonder if in benching Paul for a decade God was trying to teach him not only the scriptures, but a great personal lesson as well? Did the church shrink in those ten years? Nope. It had great growth. Did God NEED Paul? Nope. God could get it done on his own. Could God use a man like Paul? Absolutely. But Paul learned that God will get His plan done with or without Paul. God needed obedience and a humble willing heart. He needed him to go to these places to preach, but also build congregations which meant doing some of the mundane. Paul didn't take money for his time planting churches so he made tents to earn a living. Paul's line in Philippians about "doing all things through Christ who strengthens me" has nothing to do with football (although that is where I see it most these days). It has to do with surviving on little or much. It is about contentment. Am I content in the mundane or am I just a glory hog? Am I still my 11 year old self that wants to be great?
I don't want to go to a desert or be banished to learn these lessons. I want to learn from Paul. I am to do the planting or the watering and let God do the growing. Obedience in the small things of life and doing those well may lead to big things or maybe not, but the goal is God's glory...not mine. BUT out of God's glory comes my fulfillment. Being used by God under His terms is the greatest job on earth. Don't get caught up in comparing with others, just keep your head down in doing what God called YOU to do today. If it is laundry, then get out the Tide.
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