Hey, Everybody! I think we may be on the verge of some fun in this post. My good friend, Angela Cottrell, and I were talking recently about how cool it would be to hear women testify publicly to the creative ways God has used them to serve people.
But one reason many of us may struggle to find our stride is that we shortlist limitless possibilities into categories we could count on three fingers of one hand. We assume that to serve God effectively, it must look like __________________ or be similar to ________________________ or maybe ______________________________. And we don’t feel like those are a fit for us. Or perhaps we don’t have opportunities to serve like that. So, what happens? We sit down bewildered and unsatisfied and feeling lame.
But what if we gave God credit for more creativity than that? What if we realized that there are as many ways to minister in the name of Christ as there are needs out there?
No matter how familiar Ephesians 2:10 may be to you, read it again:
The same God who created the galaxies in their vast array, the seas in their unsearchable depths, the beasts of the field with spots and stripes, who landscaped the horizon with pines and cedars and sequoias, and set in motion some 37 trillion cells in the human body…
…This same God created us in Christ Jesus for good works.
His creativity did not come to a screeching halt on the Sixth Day.
He is never uninspired and uncreative in His work. The primary way He spreads His broad hands throughout this needy world is through gloves made of warm human skin.
All of us have opportunities and they are as diverse as the people trying to leave their footprints in the loose dust of this passing planet.
If all our works in Christ’s name look exactly the same, something has run amok. Massive populations and types of people become invisible in our shortsighted vision.
I love the wording of Acts 10:38 – “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
Since His ascension to the right hand of God and the coming of His promised Holy Spirit, each generation of Christ-followers is anointed by Him to go about doing good and to see Jesus heal multitudes oppressed by the devil. And behold, Jesus says, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
Shine your flashlight on the less familiar wording of these two segments from The Message, holding it right up close to the catch words of creativity:
Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. Galatians 6:4-5
Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. Isaiah 40:27-31
If God has shown creativity with the way He has used you to serve people OR if He’s done something off the beaten path with your life as a benefit to your sphere of influence, testify! You don’t even have to sit and analyze whether or not your example fits the category of “creative.” Do you get chances to go about doing some good in Christ’s Name?
Then share how!
And may a whole world of ideas and possibilities open up to some very willing sisters out there.
I am so anxious to read these! So much love to you!
Beth,
Oh my precious, dear dear sister and encourager! Last Early Dec 2013 my long time small intimate women’s bible study finished up your study, Esther, a woman for a time such as this! Never thinking God would put that to work immediately in my life on Dec 29, 2013. It was Sunday, my girlfriend who rode to church with me’s 65th Bday, great service and we were stopping by my 80 yr old independent Mom and sis to visit. Upon arriving, no one was home, but a car pulled up as I got out of my car. It was a neighbor I wasn’t familiar with, who had my sister, who doesn’t drive, telling me to get my Mom couple if meds and that she had been taken by ambulance to the local hospital because my sis couldn’t get her to wake up.
My world, life and plans for my future changed forever in that moment!
I grabbed the meds, we headed to the hospital just 2 miles away to the ER. There I found my dear dear sweet healthy Mom, pleasantly sleeping with an oxygen mask in, once I could convince them to let me in the busy ER to see her! Immediately I tried to arouse her, Mommy, mommy wake up! Open your eyes. No progress. My friend who rode with me, a retired nurse, stayed with her while I spoke with two of the most uncaring female ER Drs ever! The told that they had done a CAT scan on her brain and found she had had a brain bleed.
Ohhhhhhhh. Lord, reality set in, I could be loosing my beloved, cherished mother by morning!
You see I had planned to retire in 6 months so that we could all enjoy some traveling around the US. Well those plans quickly changed. I never went back to my government financial job for the Navy! I took January 2015 off on Family sick leave and filed papers by mail to retire on 2 Feb 2015 for my new full time job 24/7 would be carrying for my Mom (if she survived) and my younger sister.
So my friend had already called my pastor’s wife (also my BFF) and others to begin to pray and join us at the hospital! As I walked out to the lobby to get my cell phone from my sis to start to notify relatives in Oklahoma, dear dear church friends were already there praying and supporting me and my younger sister. As I took my phone and walked outside to call my Aunt ( retired RN) as I tried to speak to her the tears and reality of possible loss flooded in. She is a disciplined stern lady and she directed me to pull it together and tell her what happened. Took a deep breath an I did. She then reminded me that my older uncle had a brain bleed 10 yrs earlier and had come through it just fine!
So went back in and started Mom’s care, she was intubated and put on oxygen, since the ONLY neurosurgeon within 2 hrs was not available til Monday morning, she was finally admitted to ICU at 11:00pm. So I stayed the night next to her bed in ICU around the clock for all but one day of her 13 day stay. On Monday the only local nuerosurgeon Dr who was 87 yrs old, came in, we discussed and he performed her life saving 6 hr brain surgery. He came back and said it went well and that now we just waited on her and the swelling to go down!
At the end of her thirteen days in ICU she was transferred two hrs away to a facility in San Diego, the first of three she would be In for rehab for a total of 5 months to the day from the initial incident. She was in ICU a total of three weeks, total comma for 32 days, what followed was a HUGH education in Medicare and Elder care!
Fortunately I was able to bring her home to her home 5 months to the day. We began her home care, diaper changes ever 2-3 hrs, turning her and bathing her, purée her food, meds five times a day, etc!
All through this I drew from your teaching on Esther & Psalms 139:16. Accepting that this is what God had for me in 2014, not what I had planned! As I began and am still moving my things from my home 15 miles away and moving back home to care for my Mom, one of the first things I moved were my embroidery/sewing machines and my serger. With in the first week of her being home I had made the pattern and sewn 4 seersucker pink hospital gowns for her, since we live in the desert of So Calif and since in the summer it gets to 115 outside.
Besides sewing for my Mom I have always sewn for babies, especially preemie infants and under birth weight babies in foreign countries.b I am a leader if an American Sewing Guild (ASG) group who for our annual charity have a Sew In Day and make jumpers and shorts for our church orphanage in Haiti. I also make smocks/diaper shirts for the tiniest of tiny under birth weight babies! It gives me such joy to reach others how to do this. It is something I am able to do from home while caring for my Mom who is now 8 months today into this journey. She is bedfast or wheelchair bound. She is off anti seizure meds, is alert, most of her memory and personality are back! She laughs, jokes, is happy, enjoys her Foodtv shows, is in extremely good health considering, enjoys seeing people who come to visit and recognizes them and is most grateful to those if us who have the honor to care for her. We are blessed that she is in minimal pain, left arm and left leg not working yet, but we are giving her rehab daily for that. She has come such a long long way. But so have I in being even more great full for each and every day I have with her which is a true gift! I may be home bound, but The Lord is still allowing me to reach those in need -the least of these -with my sewing.
Thank you again for your ministry. I listen faithfully, since I am now unable to attend church. You and church on iPad are my external feeding of the word! God bless you richly!
Maybe I am missing the mark here, but for me serving now means something different than what I always thought it did. I used to think of it as a “churchy” term that could only apply to something like being a sunday school teacher or other ministry. I’ve come to view serving others as having nothing to do with what job I do or function that I serve. Whether I teach Sunday school or work as a bartender, how do I treat people. For me it goes back to Jesus talking about “When i was in prison you came to visit me”, and what could be more prison-like than the misery and emotional entanglements that most people find themselves living in these days. People are hurting AND hurtful and what could more “serving” than to “visit” them. One of the definitions for serve is to provide food or drink. Basically to provide nourishment to the body and I have to think that serving in a spiritual capacity can also mean to provide something nourishing in a emotional/relational capacity, to see through their outward hurtful behavior and to respond with loving them in a way that they don’t “deserve.” Also, apparently I like to use quotes.
I serve in various ways…but it’s taken me awhile to figure out my Nursing job at an Elementary School is part of my ministry. A kind word, a smile, or a gentle touch can make a difference in the day of a child. I also care for our son who has Cerebral Palsy by taking him to therapy, assisting him with daily living and being his cheerleader.
I enjoy serving alongside my husband with Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Relief at least once a year and we have been Doorholder’s at Passion events for the past 5 years. I sing on our church Praise Team and assist with the Youth program. We serve quarterly with a local food/clothing distribution ministry.
I have a servant’s heart and I would love to be in full-time service, but don’t really know what that would look like at this point in our lives 🙂
i just started a nonprofit to benefit kids at risk in communities.We train,fund and mobilize others to serve kids at risk.A scary journey.