The great sculptures of ancient Greece and Rome weren’t made with a computerized carving machine.
Instead, there was a chisel and there was a hammer.
And there was a vision and a passion to move that sculpture from the domain of the heart into the domain of the real.
Vision. Passion. Tools.
Simple tools.
God can do amazing things with simple tools.
We just have to allow Him to shape us so that we might shape the abilities and opportunities that He provides.
What simple vision for helping others has the Lord been placing into your heart lately?
A vision that can bring good to others as you allow the passion for people to ignite within you?
I was reading this morning from the first chapter of Jeremiah and saw this dialogue between that prophet and the Lord.
“The Lord gave me this message:
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
“Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!
“The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 1:4-9)
Jeremiah perhaps thought initially that his effectiveness for the Lord in talking to stubborn, spiritually rebellious people would be based on how charming or intimidating he might be to others.
Because we’re people who so often live “by sight and not by faith,” we can understand why he thought this way.
But God didn’t want Jeremiah sharing his personal disapprovals but instead God’s call to holiness and faith-based hope.
Just do what God says, just say what God inspires, just go where God leads.
And if people don’t like it and start to attack, God will protect.
It’s a protocal for godliness that still applies.
Listen, we can always find an excuse for not talking with co-workers about faith or for not investing time in helping a difficult neighbor or for not forgiving a difficult relative or for not volunteering at church.
We can always say that we’re too young or too old or too poor or too scared or too busy or too far away or too whatever.
But God is none of these things.
He wouldn’t stir our hearts to do something if He believed we couldn’t do it with His help.
I pray that we all have what I call the “Moses moment” when we’ve exhausted our excuses and finally admit we just want God to send somebody else to do what He’s calling us to do.
That’s when reluctance is unveiled to us as subtle rebellion and we’re brought face to face with our need to trust that God is bigger than our fears.
Let’s get to the point of Jeremiah’s acceptance when he said, “Here am I. Send me.”
Please embrace the vision God is placing into your heart about helping that disheartened co-worker or neighbor or church member.
Please accept that call to share grace, not scorn, toward that relative who boiled your blood.
These are very simple steps that, when fueled by passion and applied with the principles of scripture, can carve beautiful pictures into hearts that have been as stone.
As always, I love you
Martin
