Each According to his own Ability.

Often times, I find myself expecting that God will give me some big challenge that will require a big leap of faith on my part. Since these thoughts happen only occasionally, my next thought is usually wondering why God hasn't given me an opportunity to do so. A cool thing has happened and is still happening to me lately. I realized how backwards my thinking was.

Just like a seventh grader who goes out for basketball doesn't immediately make the High School Varsity squad, we have to take small steps at first in order to take bigger steps later on. I hadn't really put this together in the context of my relationship with God. First of all, God is not going to give me something that I can't handle. Second of all, why would God give me an opportunity to go serve people in a third world country when I often don't even serve those that I'm comfortable with right now?

I think the story of the talents in Matthew 25: 14-30 does a good job of relating this. Below is Matt 25:14-18.

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money."

First of all, notice that the man gave the talents to his servants, each according to his own ability. Likewise, God doesn't give us anything we can't handle. Secondly, the story ends with the master being happy with the two servants who responded to what the master had given them by gaining more. However, he's angry with the servant who buried his money in the ground.

I think I represent the guy who buried his money in the ground. God gives me opportunities. Albeit, they're often smaller opportunities, but they are opportunities nonetheless. Sometimes, I don't even realize that I'm quenching the spirit's prompting until after I've already done so. Only recently have I been seeing these opportunities more clearly.

Responding to these spiritual prompts, that I feel every so often, is absolutely amazing. Sometimes, they include just listening to a friend who needs someone to hear them out. Sometimes, it means breaking a communication barrier with someone you're uncomfortable with. Sometimes, it means saying something to a random person that you may never see again. I realize these are all general things, but these are all prompts that I've received from the Holy Spirit over the last month or so.

Its exciting to me to know that the spirit is prompting me to do things. Also, its even more exciting when I actually have the guts to respond in the right way. I almost always know what the spirit wants me to do when it happens. Its usually my own brain that gets in the way. "That would be awkward, I'll be late for class, I don't know that person, etc.." These are usually the things that come into my head when I feel the spirit's prompting.

Like most things in the life of a follower of Jesus, I think its always important to keep in mind why we do the things we do. Of course our mommies, daddies, pastors, teachers, etc... tell us that we need to act a certain way. They tell us that we should honor God's commands. But why? What's the big deal anyway? The more I think about this, the more I realize the sheer magnitude of love that Christ displayed for us. As I begin to dive into this, I'm always overwhelmed that someone that perfect would endure something so humiliating. For me. I do the the things I do out of love for my savior; NOT because some big shot figure of christian culture tells me its what a christian should do. [mini-rant...haha.]