God is in the midst of everything…
At times when we are experiencing difficulties it’s hard to know or appreciate how anything good can come from an experience that seems so bad. Yet, this is often when God shows us a miracle.
Charlie Johnson, an associate pastor at Timberlake sent this email earlier in the week: “Yesterday, as we were leaving class, two of us were walking to the car. We were discussing the unlikely matter of early retirement. He said that he would be retired now if not for Enron. He said that when Enron collapsed he lost everything. Then with a smile he added, if he had not lost everything he would not be a local pastor now and that he should probably send them a thank-you card.” Email from Charlie Johnson
What is our role as God’s children?
“Use me, God, in Thy great harvest field,
Which stretcheth far and wide like a wide sea;
The gatherers are so few; I fear the precious yield
Will suffer loss. O, find a place for me!”
— Christina G. Rossetti
The writer seems intimidated by the “great harvest field” of needs that “stretcheth far and wide.”
Where to begin? “The gatherers are so few.”
Again, with so many needs around them and so few engaged in ministry, the world must seem overwhelming at times. “I fear the precious yield will suffer loss.”
Yet in the midst of overwhelming needs where helpers are scarce, the writer pleads with God: “O, find a place for me!”
My prayer this morning: “In the midst of a world full of needs, help me Lord to find my place and carry out my calling.”
In Luke 5:32, Jesus says, “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
Jesus is reminding us that we are not called to be comfortable. We are called to be a witness in the harvest field that surround us.
“Use me, God, in Thy great harvest field,
Which stretcheth far and wide like a wide sea;
The gatherers are so few; I fear the precious yield
Will suffer loss. O, find a place for me!”
— Christina G. Rossetti
Today may we be used by God. May we find our place in the midst of the “harvest field.”
