SCRIPTURE: Romans 1:1a (TM) – larger reading Romans 1:1-7
I, Paul, am a devoted slave
of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God's words
and acts.
STORY:
C.
Philip Green shares this story: In one little Midwestern town, Miss Jones had the
distinction of being the oldest resident in town. So when she died, the editor
of the local paper wanted to print a little article remembering this dear old
lady, except he couldn't think of anything to say when he sat down to write the
article. Miss Jones had never done anything terribly wrong. She had never spent
a night in jail or had ever been drunk. On the other hand, she had never done
anything significant.
With
this still on his mind, the editor went down to the local café, and there, ran
into the local funeral director. He too was having the same trouble. He wanted
to put something on Miss Jones' tombstone besides "Miss Nancy Jones, born
such-and-such a date and died such-and-such a date," but he couldn't think
of anything to write either.
The
editor decided to go back to his office and assign the job of writing up a
small article for both the paper and the tombstone to the first reporter he
saw. When he got to the office, he ran into the sports editor, who got the
assignment. So somewhere in some little community in the Midwest there is a
tombstone which reads:
Here
lie the bones of Nancy Jones,
For
her life held no terrors.
She
lived an old maid.
She
died an old maid.
No
hits, no runs, no errors. (C. C. Mitchell, Let's Live!)
I'm
afraid to say, "That's the way many Christians live their lives."
They've never done anything terribly wrong, but they never accomplish anything
significant for the Lord
OBSERVATION:
Paul was on assignment. You
and I are on assignment. We have a daily choice to make as to how we are going
to fulfill that assignment. Are we going to play it safe, i.e. “No hits, no
runs, no errors,” or are we going to take a few risks and do something
extravagant for the Kingdom?
Too many of us fall into a
rhythm that takes us through our day, but little else. We raise our children.
Work out the kinks in our marriage. Play a few games of Hand-n-Foot. Eat a meal
or two. But when this life is over how will we be remembered? What could they
place on our tombstone? The Rev. Green concluded his story with the idea that
most of us haven’t done anything wrong, but we haven’t done anything
significant for the Lord.
We can change this today. In
a small way we can change the “rhythm” we have fallen into. We can become
change agents for the King. The people that I remember from the span of my
ministry are not the movers and shakers, but those who went about their life
lifting the spirit of those around them… loving the unlovable… caring for the
sick… touching the lives of children and youth… adding a smile to everyone they
met…
Here’s to taking a few risks
in our lives and making life around us different! After all God has given us an assignment to make a difference in our world.
PRAYER:
Holy Father, give us your
grace and mercy so that we truly will make a significance in the lives of
others.
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