Getting Your Hands Dirty!

When I sat at my desk early this morning I was feeling a little amiss as to what the Lord wanted me to look at in His Word.  So after a moment or two of prayer, I turned back in my notes to yesterday’s chicken scratch.  Understanding came quickly as I noticed a notation at the bottom of the page.  I had drawn a pair of eyes next to the reminder to “See Ephesians 5:8-14 for tomorrow’s study!”

So with a grin of appreciation I turned in my bible to the suggested verses.  As I read about the advantages of living in the light of God and His Word, verse ten caught my attention saying: “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” (KJV)  My immediate thought was that we need to do our part in order to reap these benefits.  The Good News Bible explains this by saying that we need to “Try to learn…,” James Murdock’s Syriac Translation tells us to “Search out…”

These instructions re-opened some thoughts in me concerning some things I should have probably done differently when my wife and I re-entered our lives after returning home from our three year Bible School experience in Oklahoma.  By the time we got back, I was ready for ministry action (or so I thought)!  But what I really didn’t understand is how different things now were in our old network of family, friends and church as well as in our personal lives.

We had been asked to return to our home church to take over the Children’s Ministry and I was all gung ho about it!  On our first Sunday back my wife and I spent about a half hour in the main service and then slipped out to take our first look at the Children’s ministry we would be re-inheriting.  On the next Sunday we took over leadership of the Kids classes. And now I can see how that was a big mistake on my part.

As I’m sure that I have mentioned before, I was literally shocked when I saw the condition of the Children’s ministry at the church when we returned.  You have to understand that this was the ministry that my wife and I started and painstakingly developed over a twelve year period pervious to this.  When we walked in on that first day the elementary rooms were in a mess.  My precious (and expensive) puppets were literally thrown in pile at the bottom of a cabinet (we had a special locking cabinet built to individually preserve and store them), the PA system was in a jumble of wires with microphones and other pieces of equipment laying around the floor, and sections of curriculum and other teaching materials were in rough stacks on various tables in the rooms.

But most alarming to me was the lack of interest and enthusiasm in the eyes of the few children in the class.  My heart was breaking at that point and I threw my all in to the rejuvenation process over the next few years.  When my wife’s health needs finally forced me to resign three years later, my one consolation was that I felt that we were able to leave behind an organized program, with a growing population of happy and enthusiastic students, parents that were interested and excited once again about what their children were doing in their services, and a small but established teacher/helper team and schedule.

The downside was that this was ALL I did at the church!  Today as I my eyes were opened by Ephesians 5:10, I began to realize that by throwing myself whole-heartedly into the Children’s Ministry, that I never got to really know the people in the congregation and that they never really had the opportunity to get to know my wife and I. 

When we returned I hadn’t realized how much the church congregation, overall environment and vision of the church had naturally changed under the direction of our new Pastors.  I guess I had expected everything to be the same as when we had left for Oklahoma.  Many of the parishioners that we had relationships with previous to our Bible School days had left the church and had been replaced with new church members we didn’t know.

In addition my life and priorities had drastically changed as well.  My wife’s declining health was my main focus and I no longer could spend the hours at the church during the week which had been the norm for me over the past years in ministry there.  Her needs dictated that we couldn’t stay very long after services or attend many of the extracurricular activities after services or during the week.  As time went on it became obvious to me that there was a dis-connect between us and the church.

As I look back now I can see why I felt that people didn’t really understand my wife and I, or what was best for her when it came to relating or ministering personally to her. Going back to Ephesians 5:10, I can see that I didn’t do my part!  If I could do it again, I would have given us more time before taking over the ministry.  I would have planned ahead and better and attempted to attend more of the church activities.  I would have given us and the church more opportunities to build relationships!

So why am I talking about all this?  Well, I believe that it is very easy for us, at times, to lay blame on everybody but ourselves when difficulties arise.  Many times though, the finger could probably point right back to us!  Ephesians 5:8-14 teaches us that if we want to know what pleases God and enjoy the benefits of being children of His light, then we’ve got to take responsibility for it!  We’ve got to “search” it out.  You and I have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty!  It is another one of those action activities like faith and love that actually takes faith and love to pursue!

Are you big enough to take responsibility for you?  All it takes is a little confidence and a bunch of trust in the love, grace and faithfulness of God!  What do you think?  Give it a try and keep an ear out to His leading!  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”