Day 55 – Learning the balance of life…
As I mentioned in an earlier writing, from the age of 12 I felt like I was going to have to be responsible for my own life. Mama was very kind and loving to me, but she was dealing with her own life of divorce from Daddy, supporting our family, then remarrying my stepfather Swede Nixon. I was used to being responsible for ME, and that was fine.
As I finished my one-year training and was assigned to Long Island, NY, I started my ministry responsibility. I was more or less a natural leader, and I didn’t mind taking charge. In the business world, or other enterprises in life, that’s okay, but when you are working with God in a ministry to take care of people, you have to learn a balance.
There was no one there to teach me, I had to learn it by trial and error…a lot of error. Some never learn this balance, they see it as THEIR responsibility and just take charge of everything. I’m not exactly sure where or how I learned it, but I knew I had to be in a partnership with God if this thing was going to work.
In business, you can make people show up because you are paying them to do so. You can also attract people because you are either making them money or providing something that will help them make money. But for a lot of people, the “spiritual realm” is not as tangible and almost seems like a luxury…great if you participate but no big deal if you don’t.
I am currently reading some personal papers that my Granddaddy, the Methodist Minister, wrote and it is interesting that he faced the same problems as I did over 100 years ago. His first assignment was in the mountains of North Carolina in 1914 and one of the comments he made was that “God will keep you humble, and the people will keep you poor”. It wasn’t that he cared about money, but he didn’t like going hungry or sleeping in a one-room parsonage with his wife that had a roof so bad the snow blew in during the night.
I never went hungry, although it was lean financially in the beginning. But the acceptance and response of people was similar in both our lives until you could win the heart of those you served.
You can’t make people come and hear you teach. You can’t make people want more from God. You can’t make people want to reach out to their neighbors and help the work grow. You must present something so alive, so appealing, so irresistible, that people will do whatever it takes to be a part of it…that’s what I and my Granddaddy were challenged with doing.
He never wrote much about his success, just his interaction with people. I had the advantage of being at the right place at the right time. People were hungry in the mid-70s, but I still had to make it come alive for them. Fortunately for me, I loved teaching and showing people how wonderful God was and the response was amazing. Now my job was to remember that I was in a partnership with God and not allow my ego to think it was all about me and my skills, my abilities, and my work.
Over the last 50+ years, I’ve done it right and I’ve done it wrong, but I keep coming back to that place where there is a balanced blend of what I do and what God does. To try to relate the examples of what has happened, would take the rest of the 310 days I have left in my “years’ worth of stories”, and I’m sure you would be bored to tears. So, I will not do that to you.
When an example is appropriate, I will share it, just know that it has been a lifetime of learning and adjusting and I thank God for His grace and mercy in allowing me to do what I have done.
Recent Comments