Heavy Lifting

Over the past several years I have had a tender heart towards evangelism.  God has stirred something inside of me.  I want to see people surrender their life to the service of Jesus.  I want to see people change. My desire is to see God use me and my gifts to bring others into His kingdom.

Here is the sticky part:  I find my self getting frustrated because I’m not the type of person who has had the privilege of actually “leading someone” to accept Jesus..  In my best recollection, I don’t recall having a conversation with someone and they suddenly have that “Ta-da” moment!  We all know someone who has these amazing stories of triumph for Christ.  They’ll say something like “Today was neat!  I stopped into a Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and the next thing you know I led a whole family of pagan witches to Jesus!”  I’m not that guy, and I find myself fighting back the urge to become jealous of them.

The coolest thing about the Bible is how the Holy Spirit will show you what you need, when you need it.  This happened to me this week when I read 1 Corinthians 3.

Paul was writing his first letter to the people of Corinth.  As people began to follow Jesus, they began to divide themselves into little teams and argue about who they followed.  Some were fans of Paul, others were fans of Apollos.  Paul’s goal was to stress to them that we are all on the same team.  He calls them co-workers.  (1 Corinthians 3:4-9)

He points out to them that he and Apollos were only servants with appointed tasks.  Paul uses the analogy of gardening, saying “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”  In other words, it’s a process.

One encouraging thing is this:  sometimes you do the heavy lifting, other times you get to be there to lead someone to Christ.  Either way, God uses us to bring those He has chosen as His children to Him.  How cool is that!  We are all woven together.

Think of it this way:  It is 556 miles from my front doorstep to Walt Disney World.  If I drive 525 miles to get me and my family home from vacation, and my wife decides she wants to drive the last 31 miles, don’t we all still make it home?

God has given us all gifts to use for His glory.  Maybe someday I will have the opportunity to lead someone else to Christ.  If not, that is ok.  The Lord may only use me to plant the seeds and have someone else water it.  The important thing is to keep in mind that God is the one who makes the seed grow!