For the past couple of weeks, most of my team has been cleaning out goat and sheep stalls. The farm we are working on just sold about 250 goats and slaughtered about 15 sheep, so we get the privilege of cleaning out their stalls. These are not just like a little poop here, a little poop there. No. Some of the stalls, when cleaned down to the ground, would be as deep as our knees. So, we have literally been knee deep in crap for the past few weeks. This past week my amazing team finished cleaning those rooms and finished cleaning all the poop that needs to be cleaned.
The second to last day cleaning the stalls, I was walking over one of the piles to get to my cleaning spot and my ankle went in the drain and twisted, but I didn’t think anything about it. I kept on working throughout the day till later that night when one of my teammates and I were hanging out. It started swelling and eventually ended up bruising. It really irritated me that I couldn’t help my team finish out the task that we had been working so hard to finish. I felt like a was letting my team down. I felt useless. That’s how most Christian lives are. Useless.
We work until what God wants us to do is way too hard for us or what he is asking of us might hurt us. God might want you to leave everything you have to go serve him. Would you go? God is worthy of everything we have and everything we are. Who cares if you are uncomfortable or injured. God is the healer of all things. We often look at The Bible and only remember and do what we want. What if we stop being selfish and start being so God-centered that we change the world. People say all the time “I wish the world would change”. “I don’t want my children growing up in such a messed up world.” What if, just maybe, we can change the world? The world started with God and will finish with God; so if we gave this world back to God we would really start changing the world for him. What would happen if we started living out Luke 9? God can and will change the world through us; but first we must change our hearts and minds to facing him rather standing next to him and trying to tell him how we think it’s not a good idea or how we aren’t going to do that. We must submit to his great and mighty authority. Are you ready to change the world for his glory or your own glory? When do we stop being useless and start being useful for his kingdom. God said, “Go and proclaim to all nations that He is King.” When does the proclaiming his name start and proclaiming our own glory stop? The only way to be truly useful is through God. God made us in his imagine so we can be used for his image.
In Luke 9, Luke talks about the cost of following God. The cost of following God is the most expensive thing in the store today. It’s amazing how the price never changes but it is still the most costly thing on the market. In verses 57-62, Jesus talks to two different men about how following him will cost them. The first man’s father just passed away and he asked if he could bury his father first, then follow Jesus. Jesus said no, that he must “let the dead bury the dead.” The second man asked if he could say goodbye to his family and Jesus said “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit to service in the kingdom of God.” Are you willing to give up everything, even your family and final words to them, for the kingdom? Are you ready to be useful?
