Thy Will; My World

February 28, 2021
There’ll always be people who question our right or worthiness to be servants of God, ministers in the church or society. I don’t mean ministers in the sense of ordained ministers, but rather people witnessing to God’s goodness and grace. There’ll always be people who say things like sure he’s just a blow in. He’s not one of us and he’ll never be one of us. There’re others who will say sure it’s only him again. He always has something to say, he’s just another one of those religious nuts. Other things people might say are nobody listens to him, he’s not very clever, he’s the local clown, he’s the one everybody belittles or makes fun of. Scripture teaches us that what qualifies us as servants of God and followers of Jesus is not the opinions of the people around us. If we’re to seek God’s will in our world then we’ll have to learn to not only deal with such accusations but to listen to what God says about us, to believe God and only God.
We’ll never be apostles in the same way Paul, John, Peter, Thomas, Matthew or James were. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not sent by God. God has sent us into our workplaces, families, churches, sports clubs and so on. We’re not just sent by God to be the best workers, parents, children, footballers, organists or whatever we are. We are sent as servants of the gospel just as Paul was.
Since Easter we have been thinking about what happens now. Easter has come and gone. We’ve heard the story of Jesus crucifixion, death and resurrection. Hopefully, we have been told what a significant moment this was in history and how important it still is for each one of us today. But what now? How does Easter change lives, change how we live? What is the lasting impact of Easter or is it simply forgotten and put away for another year, recycled like the cardboard so many Easter eggs came in?