I was out this morning hanging a load of laundry on my clothes line and thinking about my purpose. That whole–who am I and why did God make me thing. For about two years my the thing that keeps coming to me is that I have blessed to be a blessing. That is probably true for all of us. In my own particular case, I have had a wonderful cadre of mentors from diverse backgrounds who have all fed me in terms of experiencing God and growing in greater awareness of God. More and more I feel the calling to use each waking moment to be a blessing with those lessons.
What has God given you? What are your gifts and experiences? How do these things equip you or tug on you to be able to serve other people? These characteristics are hints at the reason God has crafted you to be you! You are called one way or another to make an exceptional difference in the lives of people around you. Our spiritual gifts are given to us to encourage and build the body of Christ.
Most of us probably believe too little, too much. We shirk from God size tasks. We only see our limitations. That is okay at one level. We are limited. We are inadequate. That is to say, if we are left to our own resources. Yet God, is so much bigger than our limitations. God’s ways are not our ways. What is a God size task sitting on your front porch, may be literally?
Sometimes it takes someone outside of us to see the God size task and our calling in it. I happen to watch a few minutes of a new show on television about models over 30 years old. It’s called something like “She’s got the Look.” I don’t recall exactly because I haven’t seen it before. All that aside, this evening as I am watching, Daisy Fuentes, spoke about how far she has exceeded what she ever anticipated acheiving. She spoke about how others out there saw a bigger possibility than she did in her. Lastly, she encouraged the models to be open to something greater that others might see for them.
I thought of God looking at each one of us. I thought of how God not only sees our limitations, but how He sees his Son in us. He sees Jesus Christ in us. God sees how we have been created in His image. We layer so many things over that image–fear, anger, hurts, jealousies, desires, habits, and so much more. He sees through all of the layers. God sends messagers trying to get us to shed those layers. God sends strength for us to step right out of the layers. He actually removes the layers.
Let us stop believing too little, too much. The world needs to see God reflected in us. The world needs to see God-sized love, God-sized forgiveness, God-sized joy, compassion, laughter, tenacity, justice and perseverence. Let us shed the layers we cling to even as God strips them away. Let us shed these layers like Lazarus shedding grave clothes.
Live into who God has called you to be. You are God’s child. Live as such.
Peace and encouragement from The Practical Disciple