Anytime, Lord, Anywhere

I know a person who literally stands in the storm to pick up sticks and rakes leaves as they fall. Her yard never has a stick in it. I know a person who keeps yeast starter in her refrigerator and bakes bread almost every day. She has more bread than she can give away. I know a person who loves to tinker on his cars; he has six of them. I, however, do have sticks in my yard, and do not bake bread, and rely completely on a mechanic to do anything to my car. These people have gifts that I do not have. It’s not that I couldn’t do these things…it’s that I don’t want to do those things. They are the kinds of things that easily wind up on my procrastinated chores list, to eventually be done by someone else or perhaps by me…but not without a fair amount of foot dragging and dreading.

Now, I don’t understand why a person would stand in the rain and pick up sticks or get up at the crack of dawn to punch down their bread to rise again or lie under a car and get all greasy…but I know there are people who do, and who LOVE it. We all have things that are drudgery to us that are a passion for someone else. There are a variety of gifts, says Paul, and lots of ways to serve, and a wide variety of activities. And all of them are given by God.

Every one of us has a unique combination of skills and interests, gifts and talents; we each have our own strengths. And God is the one who gave them to us and who activates them by sending his Spirit to work through us. And Paul tells the church at Corinth, and us, that we are to use them for the good of the whole.

How many of you have taken a spiritual gifts inventory? Interesting, aren’t they. How many of you have made a commitment to a new direction in your ministry because of a spiritual gifts inventory you took? My experience is that we typically offer a class, take the inventory, compare gifts, read the descriptions of the gift with the same mindset that we read our horoscope and go home.

If you are curious about your spiritual gifts, there are some great online tests you can take. I have a some good inventories I can share with you. Several years ago, the Gallup Organization published “Living Your Strengths” to help people find their right fit in their community.

But, I’m not sure that you need all that to find your ministry. The late great Yogi Berra spoke a profound truth when he said, “You can observe a lot by watching.”

What are those things that you procrastinate and drag your feet and consider drudgery that you do? You are not likely to find your giftedness there. But, what do you love to do? What excites you? Gives you joy? What do you do, that when someone thanks you for doing it, you respond, “Anytime” and you mean it. You might find your giftedness here. Our place of ministry builds on our strengths.

God gave us strengths for the good of the whole. And God gave us different ones – on purpose. Unfortunately, sometimes we think that bearing our cross means volunteering to do things that we don’t like doing. It’s kind of like the Fable of the Animal School.

The animals organized a school to help their children deal with the problems of the new world. And to make it easier to administer the curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying, they decided that all their children would take all the subjects.

On the first day of school, little rabbit combed his ears and went hopping off to school. The first class of the day was running. The rabbit was a star in running class. He ran to the top of the hill and back as fast as he could go, and oh, did it feel good. He couldn’t believe that he got to do what he did best. As he got back to the starting line, the instructor praised him, “Rabbit, you really have talent for running. You have great muscles in your rear legs. With some training, you will get more out of every hop.” Rabbit was excited. He loved school. “This is great,” he thought, “I get to do what I like to do and I get to learn to do it better.”

But then, the next class was swimming. He wasn’t so sure about swimming. He told his teacher, “I don’t think this class is for me. I don’t like to get wet. I’d like to drop the course.” To which the teacher responded, “You are signed up for the course, and you have to finish your commitment. Either you jump in or you fail.” So, little rabbit jumped in, and he panicked. He went down once, twice. Bubbles came up. The teacher saw that he was drowning and pulled him out. (Have you ever been there with something you volunteered to do…I know I have!) Poor rabbit was soo glad when class was over.

When he got home he told his parents that he had made a decision. He didn’t like school, and he was not going back.

They were having none of it. He was going to finish. (I’ve been there as a volunteer too!) So, he went to the counselor the next morning. And he told the counselor all about his fear of the water and his horrible experience almost drowning. And the counselor asked him if there was anything he liked about school. He told him all about how he had run to the top of the hill and back and the instructor had praised his strong leg muscles.

As counselors do, the counselor reflected back, “Rabbit, I hear you. I hear you saying you don’t like school because you don’t like swimming. I think I have diagnosed that correctly. Rabbit, I tell you what we’ll do. You’re doing just fine in running. I don’t know why you need to work on running. What you need to work on is swimming. I’ll arrange it so you don’t have to go running anymore, and you can have two periods of swimming.”

Which was perfect for the school because duck was having a similar problem. He was excellent in swimming but relatively poor in running. So, he could get extra practice in running while rabbit got extra practice in swimming.

The church in Corinth was just like the animal school, except they were also arguing over whether it was better to swim or run!

Duck tried hard – so hard, in fact that his webbed feet rubbed raw and he not only didn’t improve in running, but he suffered in swimming. And Rabbit never learned to swim. But, he did have a great idea. When he graduated, he dreamed of starting a school where rabbits would do nothing but run, the squirrels could just climb trees, and the fish could just swim. Every time he thought about it he smiled, “Oh, what a great place that would be.”

Every single one of us has a ministry, a place of service. It is a good gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has drawn us here together in the Farmington family to be the body of Christ and to use those gifts for the good of the whole community. Are you a greeter or an usher, or maybe a liturgist or a choir member? Do you love children or construction, or maybe to visit with a shut-in or a homeless guest? Are you administrative or creative? When you find your ministry, every time you serve it is like your heart sings, “Anytime, Lord, Anywhere.”

Oh, what a great place that would be. “Anytime, Lord, Anywhere.”

*Story of the animal school adapted from “The Animal School: A Fable” by George Reavis