Dear Members and Friends of IBCZ,
Last Sunday our theme was “Gifted to Serve.” We saw how everyone in the church is gifted by the Holy Spirit to make some kind of meaningful contribution to the life and ministry of the church. No one has all the gifts, but all have at least one gift. Furthermore, the church needs the gifts of all its members to accomplish its ministry. Therefore, no one should think they are less important or more important than others.
There is an amusing story I read in a book by Charles Swindoll that pictures this for us. It goes like this:
“Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school.
“They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it fair and easier to administer, all the animals took all the subjects.
“The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact, he was better than his instructor was! However, he made only passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running. This caused his webbed feet to be badly worn so he became only average in swimming. But “average” was quite acceptable, therefore nobody worried about it ─ except the duck.
“The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.
“The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He developed “charley horses” from overexertion, so he only got a “C” in climbing and a “D” in running.
“The eagle was a problem child and was severely disciplined for being a non-conformist. In climbing classes, he beat all the others to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting there!”
God has gifted all of us to do something well for the benefit of the church and the sake of others. If we all focus on the areas where God has gifted us, we will make the best contribution possible. If we are trying to do those things we are not gifted for simply because they need to be done and no one else is doing them, we won’t do so well at them and it will take time away from the areas where we are gifted. So, let’s all be serving as God has gifted us, and experience the joy that comes with that!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Bob