When I was still working, I rode my scooter on back roads to work because the main road was a four-lane highway and the speed limit of 55 MPH was just beyond the limit of my scooter. And no one really went 55 on that road. So, the few times I took that road, cars and trucks would be whizzing by me and sometimes I felt like I would be blown over.
On one of the back roads was the small Cataumet United Methodist Church with a sign that often had interesting sayings on it. I wrote about this before in a post titled, "A short post about an interesting sign". I haven't been past it for about two years so I don't know if they still have the sign out front. I hope they do. It was always something fun and it led to many conversations at work.
The sign I wanted to mention is from March, 2015. I wrote a draft of this past back then but didn't finish it until now.
"Lots of people want to work for God but only as an adviser."
As Christians, we say we want to do God's work. We say we are Jesus' followers. We say, as in the old hymn, "Where He leads me I will follow." But, as the sign says, we like to pick and choose what we do. We like to have veto power. Our pastor recently had a sermon about the need to listen and open our hearts to God's leading and how important it is to make a decision and that means being willing to do what it takes to do what God asks of us. I have done this a number of times and it turns out that this is not usually as hard as it seems. God is not out to punish us saying, "Oh, so you don't like to travel. You don't like to be in new situations. OK, then. I'm going to call you to be a missionary."
What I have found is that usually, it is something I have a gift for already. Or it is something he has shown me and has prepared me for. He gave me the opportunity to move from the place I grew up to Cape Cod. But before that, my parents had brought me to New England on vacation and I fell in love with it. I always felt that I was meant to live here.
He gave me the opportunity to become the choir director of a small church. It was a big commitment in time and energy but God gave me a musical gift and a love of singing and it was an easy change to make. This happens to most people. It can be easy to feel like you don't want to change but it is both an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to do God's work. I'm hoping that in future posts I can tell about some more of these kinds of things that God has asked of me. And maybe, if I'm courageous enough, I can also list some of the times I didn't.
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