Being Ministered to as a Ministry...

Have you ever thought that allowing someone to minister to you might minister to them? Or to say it in a less positive way, if you are unwilling to accept help from someone, you are not just "being nice" or "considerate" but rather you are hindering them from using their God given spiritual gift of service?

We have been involved in various ministries at church over the last fifteen years including things like cleaning the church, filling the baptismal, changing the bulletin board, setting up tables and chairs, lawn care, building projects, etc. In addition to these things at the church, a large portion of our lives have been spent working on other people's houses or helping people move or do yard work, etc. For as long as we can recall, we have tried to include our boys in these activities. If it's time to clean the church, the boys go and they help. If we will be laying a floor at our friend's house, the boys go and they help. And so the story goes. Over the years the Lord has developed in our boys a desire and willingness to help out. I am by no means saying that they are perfect or always incredibly diligent; they are still sinners with the same temptations toward laziness that most of us have. However for the most part, they really do love to minister to people.

As the boys have gotten older we have offered their "services" to many people; for the most part in vain. It would seem that most people just don't want to accept help. (Or perhaps they want to accept help but feel that their projects or issues are too inconvenient for others to help them with). I know that sometimes for me to accept help means that I must humble myself and be willing to not obsess over every small detail or micro-manage every aspect of the current project. Sometimes it means that I have to be willing to let someone help who may need some instruction or teaching before they can help me... thus it will take some extra time. All of these things seem overly inconvenient to me which oftentimes means that I choose to "do it myself" rather than seek out or accept help. But what we need to remember is that life isn't just about getting things done. Life is about relationships. First and foremost it is about our relationship with our Lord and secondly our relationship with others. If I want to draw others into a closer relationship with Christ than I must take the time to relate to them and a big part of this is letting them into my house and my life and letting them help me with the "stuff of life".

Looking back over the years I remember with great fondness people whom I've let help me and I offer up a prayer of thanksgiving to God for how he used them in my own life as well as for how wonderfully He has and will continue to bless them for their ministry to me. Honestly, the people whom have impacted me most are not any great scholars that I've read about or people on TV, but rather the people whom have served us meals when we were hungry and clothed us when we were in need of clothing. People whom have encouraged me in sadness and prayed with me in times of confusion. People whom have helped paint my house and put up with my prideful "control issues." People whom have shared Starbucks with me and cried with me and laughed over the crazy situations that we find ourselves in. All of these are forms of help that I had to being willing to accept and which I would not have had opportunity for if I hadn't been willing to relate to these people.

I will close with a story of great blessing. There is a certain family at church who has increasingly been calling up and asking to "use" our boys to accomplish some menial tasks around their house and yard. They don't pay them with money (we would not allow that and our boys would not accept that) however they do bless our boys with a fun filled time of laughter and patient instruction and guidance and good old fashioned hard work... sometimes even a trip to Culvers or a lunch of mac-n-cheese and brats (which really gets my boys excited). This family is so precious to us for many reasons, but one big one is because they are willing to be a really important part of my three sons' growth in Christlikeness by taking them under their "wings" and giving my boys a way to minister to them. Thank you John and Vicki... may God bless you abundantly beyond all you could ever ask or hope or think, just as you have blessed us.