Skip to main content

"Please God, anything but ______"

Here's a snippet from the presentation I gave to my church about my journey. It's basically what's in my prayer letter, just presented differently:

In general, the ministry stories I’ve heard in my life have left the impression that God leads people to do exactly the thing they least want to do. This worried me, and made me afraid to even ask God what kind of ministry He wanted to lead me into. Well, there have always been two things I’ve been clear on as far as what I’m going to do with my life: I don’t like kids, and I’m not going to be a teacher.

However, this has not prevented me from working with kids at summer camp, volunteering with LBE, and teaching Sunday School, nor from doing one-on-one tutoring with some junior high students, getting a TESOL certificate, and teaching English for a 3-week stint in Ukraine. So, methinks the lady doth protest too much. That, and God has a sense of humour.

It's struck me recently that I have found myself if not doing, at least interested in, and passionate about another formerly "please God, don't make me do ____ " ministry . After my YWAM ministry trip to Vancouver, I said all I'd learned was I was NOT cut out for urban missions. But, while I'm in no way actually involved in urban missions now, I do live contentedly in the heart of downtown where I am intentional about transportation (walking, bussing) and consuming (avoid fast food restaurants in favour of family-run restaurants, shop at small business when possible, avoid Wal-Mart) choices. So, though you won't see me volunteering in a soup kitchen any time soon, my interest is engaged in downtown issues, and anyone who's heard any of my bus rants knows I'm a some kind of self-styled voice for the voiceless on the matter (not that my "voice" ever gets much beyond the ears of my friends).

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back here for my breadth of ministry potential - far from it; I recognize how pitifully ineffectual are my little efforts - my goal in pointing this out is to glorify God for what He can do with all the gifts He's given us in spite of our hangups and prejudices.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bigger dreams for a livable city

A message to a mayoral candidate Just a few thoughts arising from the BW ride with the ED.  1) That bridge connecting Edmonton and Scott across the Assiniboine would be nice, of course. But we don't have the money to even build it, much less to build all the other bridges that would be desired.  The reason that a downtown AT bridge is so greatly desired is because the city *somehow* failed to put a bike lane on the Osborne Bridge when they rehabbed it in 2010ish, despite the fact that is was in *all the plans*.  Meanwhile there *are* three bridges downtown. Yes, they all have their challenges for cyclists, but there *are* three bridges.  Whereas Maryland to Omand's Creek is a *very* long stretch with *no bridges whatsoever* (except that sewage bridge at Aubrey taunting every pedestrian or cyclist who has to bike kms out of their way to connect from Cambridge to Sherburn. Poop can cross here but humans cannot.).  Since we do not have all the money in the world to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Living stones in the holy land

I met Jesus in Israel-Palestine a few years ago. I found him not in the rocky, desert ground he trod, nor in the ancient stones of the towns and cities he visited; not in the subterranean grotto in the Church of the Nativity, nor in the mammoth Church of the Holy Sepulchre, encompassing the traditional site of his death and resurrection. No, I met him in the lives of Palestinians who incarnate his spirit, in humble, passionate people who are convinced that love is the only way. I met Jesus in people who spoke like this: “We need to be soaked in the love of Christ. Love is not a hug and a kiss. Love is to seek the life of the other that the cost of one’s own.” --Labib Madanat, coordinator of the Palestinian and Israeli Bible Societies “Love is not an opportunity to overlook justice. Love is an opportunity to pursue justice…. [But] we want to resist any form of evil with the heart and mind of Jesus Christ.… There is no love without justice. And there is no true justice without lov...
2 comments
Read more

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...
5 comments
Read more