Do What You Do

Hey! Remember me? Yea, I know it’s been a while. I hated to go away but I felt I had to and I hope you’ll give me this opportunity to explain why.

I started writing in this space more than eight years ago. It was more of a release than anything else. It seemed everywhere I looked I saw God’s hand and just wanted to share it with whoever cared to read it. Those reflections have resulted in one book to date, Way Off Base, and a couple of others that will likely be ready in the next couple of years.

But over time the hours I spent in front of this computer shifted from devotion to duty, from response to requirement and from outpouring to obligation. That’s not good. When that happens too much of me gets involved and too much of He gets squeezed out. I needed to hit 700 words. I needed to have it ready by the end of the day Monday. I needed to find a scripture to wrap around my observations. I needed a break.

My writing is not any different than your coaching or your car pooling or your t-shirt wearing or your Facebooking. Whatever you’re doing to put yourself in a position to influence others needs to be done not because you feel you have to but because it’s an overflowing of your wellspring of life. (Prov. 4:23) And when that well runs dry it needs to be filled otherwise all those people you’re trying to influence will end up influencing you. (I Cor. 15:33)

Following after Christ can become such a duty, can’t it? So often we get sucked into this eddy of expectation of what a believer is supposed to act like and look like and sound like that we lose our God-given uniqueness. When we live our lives the way we think we’re supposed to as opposed to how the Spirit of God is leading us we miss all those strange and wonderful and frightening and beautiful twists and turns of what, in the end, turns out to be a pretty abundant life.

Recently I reread the story of Jesus eating at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus…the second meal (Jn. 12: 1-11). Remember in the first account (Luke 10:38-42) Martha got all bent out of shape because she felt she was doing all of the work while Mary sat there fawning over Jesus and Lazarus, well, who knew what Lazarus was up to. Jesus tells Martha then, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one…” (v. 41) What was that ‘one thing?’ To many, including so many today, that one thing would have Martha out of the kitchen where she was so fussy and around Jesus feet where she could worship with hands held high. But that’s not what Jesus meant. Martha was actually pretty good at what she did.

At this second meal Martha is still in the kitchen but she has a totally different demeanor. Mary is still at Jesus’ feet and Lazarus? Well, what about Lazarus? He wasn’t cooking or serving or anointing Jesus’ feet with oil. All he was doing was traveling the country side sharing the good news and getting people saved (John 12:11).

See, we’ve each been given different gifts to be used in different ways. One is no better than another. Now, they may appear so to those caught up in the downward spiral of duty but in God’s eyes the body is “fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies.” (Eph. 4:16) This doesn’t mean Lazarus shouldn’t help in the kitchen or Martha shouldn’t get emotional or Mary shouldn’t serve. What it means is that we should take the time to allow Christ to fill up the wellspring He created within us so that what overflows will not be what we think the world needs but exactly what is necessary for the building up of the body...irrespective of others expectations.

So go on. Do what you do!