A Wealth of Talents

"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant." I Cor. 3:6

One of the biggest blessings of this year has been the opportunity to attend the Tolans' missions chats every other Sunday afternoon. Today was no exception as I was captivated by the words and heart of World Hope's executive director.

When I was younger, I used to think that a minister was that guy who stood up in front of all those people every morning and tried to make them fall asleep in thirty minutes or less. I could never do that. #1 I wasn't a guy and #2 I was terribly shy as a child and the thought of speaking in public was daunting to say the least. As I grew older, I realized that ministers weren't the only ones who were called to share Christ with others, we all were. So what could I do? I could be a missionary. Of course all missionaries have to be trained in the vocations of preaching, teaching, or medicine. Right? So when I decided to go spend 2 months in Honduras a few years ago, I really thought myself to be crazy for having accepted such an offer. I didn't have much training in any of those fields. Fortunately, God in all his omniscience already knew that to be a missionary, one didn't have to ascribe to one of the three former titles.

The title of this blog is part of the title of my Senior Honors Project for undergrad. It was 110 pages. Don't worry. I won't make you read all of it. I already made my professors suffer through it once. I'm not even sure how it became that long. To make a long story short, I went to Honduras not really knowing in what capacity I would or could serve. I was just a pre-med college student with some training in music performance and able to speak a smidgen of Spanish. As the weeks progressed, I found God opening my eyes to those roles he had already prepared for me. You see, God already has given us many talents, and with those talents we are able to serve others and share the love of Christ (check out 1 Peter 4:10). For me my small training in music led me to help some of the students learn new songs in English. My smidgen of Spanish turned into a broken conversation with a lady as I recounted a recent Bible study lesson about Proverbs 31 and how she was worth something to God, even if her husband had just left her for another woman. Those days spent coloring in coloring books as a child and playing games came in handy when living with a 4 and 5 yr old and their exhausted and lonely mother.

And Mrs.Lyons recounted similar stories tonight. Of a girl who had a degree in art who wanted to serve God abroad but didn't fit into one of the three aforementioned categories. What is she doing now? Helping make materials and propaganda to educate women and communities about the rampant sex trafficking that happens all around the world. God's used and continues to use people from all different backgrounds with all types of talents, architects, musicians, seamstresses, hair cutters, businessman, enigineers, electricians, health care workers, etc..., to spread his word around the world to the masses of his suffering and dying precious creations.

So as the verse written above states, we are all ministers and competent to spread the wonderful message of the new covenant. Just imagine: if time, money, and situation weren't an issue, where would you go for God? He'll take you there. Through prayer, faith, and obedience there are no limits as to what God can do through you.