OK, so I've been asked to do the following... you may see a pattern emerge.
1) Serve on the Women's Leadership Committee to do publicity and plan a retreat.
2) Create, organize and lead an international students ministry at our church.
3) Help team-lead a Bible study at a local nursing home.
4) Serve on the newcomers committee at church.
5) Lead Covenant Couples Group that has monthly events.
These of course are in addition to babysitting ~20hrs/wk, Gran-sitting 6hrs/wk, 15 credit hours of school, small group, a prayer group, leading another small group and two women's Bible studies. Oh yeah, and continue to cultivate and maintain meaningful relationship with friends in multiple states while maintaining a healthy marriage and getting good grades. Yeah right.
So one could say I'm over it. Ready to just say no to everyone and everything and retreat with a cup of tea and one of the many books 'in que.' (Because the recommended reading list for psychology classes is more work than the classes themselves.) But the other part of me could say yes I would love to help out any way I can. I don't need sleep - overrated. But Shaun said that he thinks I have been doing too much for the past 3 yrs and need to settle down. So if you have any thoughts on what exactly I should be doing . . . let's just say, I'll take it under advisement when I get back from having my retreat.
2 comments:
Deciding exactly how and where to invest out Kingdom energy is a challenge. I think we need to adopt the missional attitude of Jesus. He often neglected certain needs in order to address those which would most-directly fulfill His calling from the Father: to glorify God and to declare His existence and sovereignty. For example, in John 3:5-9 Jesus passes by "a great number of disabled people" and heals only one.
The apostle Paul displays a similar attitude in setting the limits for his ministry. In his letter to the Romans Paul declares that his ministry in Macedonia is complete and that he plans to continue to Spain (Rom 15:23). Clearly not everyone in Macedonia was saved but Paul's explicit mission of planing a center of evangelizing believers was complete. He served to the exact extent of his calling.
Given these two wonderful examples, the obvious questions is how do we discern our calling? It is clearly important since the nature and extent of our earthly ministry depends on its explicit definition. I believe that the Spiritual gifts that we have been given do contribute greatly to the determination of our calling, however, they do not define it exactly. Remember that Jesus had the gift of healing however he did not address every healing need that was placed before Him.
Our relationship with the Father is ever-changing and the exact elements of our calling may change accordingly. Therefore, in any given moment I think it is important to address those elements of our calling that have been directly identified by the Spirit. Paul sums up this idea nicely in his letter to the Phillipians (v. 3:16): "Live up to what we have already attained."
There is no way I will even sound like Shaun. I was just going to say slow your roll and let God dictate what is most important to Him in the life He has given you. And now to quote something from Spiderman "with great power, comes great responsibility". Good thing we don't have great power, but the One who does have it, has given us some and so we do have a responsibility to honor Him that has given it to us. I know you will do what He wants. I just wanted to type it into your blog. ;)
JJ
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