At my Waters Edge Church (WEC) Community Group meeting a few weeks back, we were having a discussion regarding our spiritual gifts. These amount to the skills and passions that we are blessed with to help spread the gospel of the Lord. While by all metrics I am a highly educated person, I have always felt that my main spiritual gift is, well, staying out of the way. Hah. Seriously, I feel most comfortable doing physical labor or routine office tasks that, while important and necessary, kind of keep me in the shadows. I used to tell folks who would press me on my religious beliefs to leave me alone - religion is a personal thing. How's that for spreading the good news! After some reflection on this matter, I think it all boils down to the fact that I am highly agoraphobic. I think my fear of being around other folks has led to a strong reluctance on my part to think that I could have any special skills or passions about talking in public about my faith or beliefs. So, when the subject of ministry as a spiritual discipline was discussed in group, I stated that it was clearly not one of my gifts.
It's funny how God takes what you think you could never do and turns it on its ear. You say no, no, no - he says yes, yes, yes. You say no way - he says way. It was only a few days after I had this discussion that I got a call from WEC asking if I would participate in a video testimony. I said yes as I immediately understood that even though I was being asked by WEC staffer Brian Miller, it was actually God doing the talking. The video was shown at the services on Nov. 30, 2008. I will let you be the judge of how effective I was. Regardless (or as the scholars say, "irregardlessly") if I mumbled, said nothing useful, or even made a fool of myself, I stepped up and answered God's call. Will you? (Part 1 of 3)
