Employed or Laid Aside

Lord, make me what You will.

I put myself fully into Your hands:

Put me to doing, put me to suffering,

Let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You...

Recently, we had a "flood" in our lower level. Water got backed up in the drainage outside, and since it needs a place to go, the water decided to come into our crawl space/storage area. Now, we had something similar happen at a previous parsonage, so you'd think we'd learn, wouldn't you? But no, everything was still in cardboard (rather than plastic) boxes and a lot of stuff got wet. We ended up having to pull everything out and, over a period of many days, go through it all and figure out what we could keep and what had to go.

In that process, I discovered a lot of junk. But I also discovered some things I had forgotten I had. And I discovered some things that I had once used a lot but had laid aside when I didn't need them anymore. I know that, for those who know me, this will be hard to believe, but I had boxes of computer stuff that no longer worked with my current computers. It wasn't stuff that could be used anymore, but for some reason I had hung onto it, thinking it might somehow become useful again. Once I had employed it, but then something newer had come along, and it had been laid aside.

Is that what this prayer is about? Does there come a time when we are like that "junk"? I don't think so, though I think that's the way we hear it, which makes us reluctant to pray it. We don't want God to lay us aside like a box of unused computer parts! But I do believe there are seasons and situations where our gifts and talents are more useful than others to the kingdom of God. What this part of the Covenant Prayer is asking, I believe, is this: God, you alone know my gifts, so use them when you can, but I'm also willing to let someone else be used if it will further your kingdom better.

Let me describe it this way: When I first began in full-time ministry at High Street United Methodist Church in Muncie, I was appointed as the youth pastor. Well, 80% of my time was spent with youth, and the only department I hadn't taken a single class out of in seminary was...you guessed it...youth ministry. Thank God for patient parents and patient youth (and a patient senior pastor) as I fumbled my way at first, trying to see how my gifts could be used in that setting. And, amazingly (to me), I discovered that God knew what he was doing. I did have gifts and abilities that God could use in that setting.

But there also came a time when I needed to move on. It was time for someone else to lead that ministry. Most people cannot do youth ministry forever (though I knew one man in the Annual Conference who was still doing effective youth ministry when he retired...but he was the exception!), and God called me to other forms of ministry. In effect, I was "laid aside" in youth ministry, so that I could be "employed" in other sorts of ministry. I believe God does that. God calls us to employ our gifts, and will direct us (if we will let him) into ministries where we can be most effective at that time, where our passions and heart are.

The question when we pray this prayer is this: where, O God, can you use me today? Or, as the famous missionary Frank Laubach was known to pray, "What can you and I do together, God?" If we would pray that and really listen for the answer, we would find less frustration and more joy in serving the God who loves us so much.