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Specialty

Pastoral Messages | January 12, 2017

When I was in high school, I worked at a homeschooling curriculum supply store. Our shop was wall-to-wall with books, games, programs, software; basically every supply a person would need to educate a child at home from preschool to 12th grade. This was in small-town Mississippi, because of the specialized nature of the store, people would drive in from around Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas to look at material. The thing that made it even better, was that I was homeschooled, I had field tested all this stuff and could make some real recommendations. This started a fascination with specialty shops.

Seeing that so many of these types of stores are open across the country, I can’t be the only person who likes to browse these kinds of shops. They hold a promise of having that special thing you are looking for. They hold a promise of having exactly what you need. And they do this, by making you believe that you don’t have what you need, or that you have needs you aren’t even aware of. This idea of not having what you need, of scarcity, is what drives commerce, but it’s a sneaky idea. It snakes its way into our hearts and whispers to us that we aren’t what someone needs, that somehow we aren’t enough.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul is writing to a church that is trying to figure out what they need. This congregation was a mess; they were acting out, fighting, and not caring about what they should be caring about. So they went looking to problem-solve, and write to Paul, the “specialty shop” of church issues. Surely he would have exactly what they need; he would have the special something to get them out of their mess.

But the funny thing is Paul doesn’t have that one special thing. He wrote back, “For in every way you have been enriched in God, in speech, in knowledge of every kind.” Paul continues, “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of Christ. God is faithful, by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 1)

Often we are resistant to use our gifts as a church community because we don’t realize we have them. We read special books, or go to special conferences, or listen to special podcasts hoping to get that one thing we really need – that one thing that will help us be better people, be better followers of Christ.

But the thing is, we already have it. We were given the gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptisms. God hasn’t left us alone to figure it all out. God hasn’t been stingy with gifting people either. I look around my life and I see people who are great listeners, active servants, and compassionate workers for justice. I see people who have so many gifts to build the kingdom of God and don’t even realize it. Part of what we need to do is name the gifts we see in others. Sometimes others see things in us that we don’t see so clearly. The other part is that we need to cultivate trust in God, the ultimate giver.

A few months ago, I was at a conference (probably looking for that one “special thing”) and the speaker said that we have been given everything we need to do ministry, we only need to trust that we already have it. We already have what we need to build God’s kingdom on Earth. We don’t need to wait until we become better people, or go looking around specialty shops of spirituality. We are enough. May God, who is the ultimate giver of gifts, give us the will to use what we have.

-Amy Diller, pastor in residency

7 Comments on “Specialty”

  • Bonnie Heydeman

    January 13, 2017 at 2:36 pm

    Wow, Amy, what a great message! Thank you!

  • David DeWit

    January 13, 2017 at 1:12 pm

    Thanks for pointing this out. What’s missing, for most of us, is courage…. something to pray about.

  • Diana Holland

    January 13, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    Enjoyed your thought provoking article. Well put. Thank you for sharing.

  • Midge Johnson

    January 13, 2017 at 9:53 am

    I enjoyed this article very much, well written!!!

  • Jeanne Withycombe

    January 12, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    Well written, Amy. Also, sometimes we have to “get out of the boat” and trust that God will stay with us when we try something out of our comfort zone.

  • Heidi Watkins

    January 12, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Thanks for sharing your inspiring thoughts/words, Amy.
    You are a blessing to St. Paul!

  • Heidi Watkins

    January 12, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Thanks for sharing your inspiring thoughts/words, Amy.
    You are a blessing to St. Paul! ~heidi watkins

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