This week has been a real guilt-trip.
It all started with 100 Huntley Street and watching the amazing acts of service and giving that people are doing. One man, for instance, deserted by his mother on a street corner at age twelve, now has a worldwide ministry serving thousands upon thousands of children. Another courageous Christian ministry is rescuing girls from prostitution in Cambodia.
I thought to myself, “But what am I doing to help people? I’m not doing anything close to what these Christians are doing. I feel so guilty, so lacking, so – well, admit it – so inferior.”
Then I heard that a friend of mine had published a book. A book, no less. I haven’t done that, either! So, what am I doing with my life instead, when all these other Christians are being so active, productive and useful? And I’m not just feeling guilty, I’m jealous too, because think how great it’s going to be for them in the line-up meeting Jesus one day. All those wonderful things they did in his service they can talk about together. And me? Not a book to my name, not a child rescued.
It reminded me of Luke 19:15. Jesus is telling the story of a king wanting to know how much his subjects gained with the money he’d given them. My worst fears exactly. It’s line-up time, and Jesus wants to know what I’ve got to show for all my years of being a Christian. What did I do with the gifts he gave me?
Well, the first chap comes up and he’s made ten times what the king gave him. And Jesus is pleased, too, verse 17. “Well done,” he says, “Because you have been faithful in a very little…” – hang on, stop tape, what was that? For all those tremendous gains the man made, it was only “a very little?!”
In the great scheme of things, yes, I suppose it would be. But the man had been faithful. That’s what really pleased Jesus.
Faithful how, though? Verse 23, he’d been faithful in putting what he’d been given to good use – and not to himself, but to Christ. It wasn’t to make a name for himself, or get himself on TV as a great guy. It was simply to serve Christ in whatever way he could with the abilities he’d been given.
I don’t have much ability, compared to what some Christians have, but that’s not what matters. It’s not what I do with my abilities, but who am I using my abilities for?
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