Image Courtesy of porbital / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
One semester
in college, we had just studied or were about to study John 13, where Jesus
washed the feet of His disciples. We
walked into to classroom to find that all of the chairs had been pushed to the
sides of the room, leaving us to sit on the floor.
The
professor came in to the room with a bowl and a towel and proceeded to wash the
feet of several of my classmates, praying for them and speaking over them.
I wish I
remembered the whole experience better, but I only remember what he said to one
person because it stood out to me so strongly.
The
professor knelt down to wash his feet and began to speak to him. He told him that he was not going to lead a
big church. He was not going to be a
star like some of his classmates were going to be or like those who already
were.
But he was
going to be effective. In the small or
medium-sized churches he would eventually serve, he would be exactly what they
needed.
God puts
each of us in varying positions throughout our lives, and whether we find
ourselves to be the big fish or the little fish, we need to find the ways we
can be most effective where we are.
The New
Testament letters are full of names that are only mentioned once. Paul found them significant enough for a
mention, but we will never read sermons they preached or learn their life
stories. They were simply living their
lives being effective.
This all is
not to say that you lose effectiveness with a large sphere of influence, but
simply that effectiveness doesn’t come only with a large sphere of influence.
And that guy
from my class? I’ve not really heard
anything about him since graduation. And
I’m pretty sure that’s just fine.
