I came to a realization last night. After all my whining about God not using me (and indeed, being stopped at every effort to do so), I wonder if maybe He has different plans for me than what I think. Just because I'm an ex-Witch, does that mean God must use me to minister to Witches? Could I be looking at this all wrong?
Perhaps that's what I've been doing. I know I command a certain amount of respect at both the official Atkins forum and About.com's Weight Loss forum. Maybe my ministry is to help teach people better nutrition, to share the knowledge that has been so freely shared with me. What if God has been using me this whole time and I've simply been too blind to see?
Could it be that these health forums are exactly where I should be right now and I'm doing exactly what I should be doing?
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DING DING DING we have a winner!!!
Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head. I think you are being used in ministry WRT nutrition. I think God wants to round you out more ... perhaps he wants to make use of you as you ARE, not make use of something that you once WERE.
It could be that he wants to make the central fact of your character not the fact that you were once a witch, but that you are now a Christian.
There's a whole lot else to his body then just ministers to former witches. There are analysts, and pastors, and janitors, and teachers, and nutrition experts, and police officers and soldiers and housewives ... all of these are part of the kingdom.
I think you are exactly right ... your view of what constitutes "ministry" and "being used of God" is perhaps too narrow. So, perhaps is mine.
Got some reading for you... ever hear of Martin Luther? One of his more interesting works is a very short one ... "An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility" . Key passage:
"...From all this it follows that there is really no difference between laymen and priests, princes and bishops, "spirituals" and "temporals," as they call them, except that of office and work, but not of "estate"; for
they are all of the same estate,[12] -- true priests, bishops and popes, -- though they are not all engaged in the same work, just as all priests and monks have not the same work. This is the teaching of St. Paul in Romans 12:4 and I Corinthians 12:12, and of St. Peter in I Peter 2:9, as I have said above, viz., that we are all one body of Christ, the Head, all members one of another. Christ has not two different bodies, one "temporal ," the other "spiritual." He is one Head, and He has One body.
Therefore, just as Those who are now called "spiritual" -- priests, bishops or popes -- are neither different from other Christians nor superior to them, except that they are charged with the administration of the Word of
God and the sacraments, which is their work and office, so it is with the temporal authorities, -- they bear sword and rod with which to punish the evil and to protect die good. A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another. "
The whole thing is online at
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/nblty-03.html
.
In other words, one of the keys of the Reformation is that there is no difference between "clergy" and "laity" ... all are priests alike in God's kingdom. The call to run a taproom is no different from the call to minister before the altar -- the call, in both cases, comes from God. He needs people to keep the streets clean ... or their bodies healthy ... just as he needs people to teach the word and reach out to the lost.
It's something we Baptists tend to gloss over ... you'll notice that just about the only "call" people talk about in church is the "call to missions" or "call to pastor". The idea that someone might be called to just be a workaday person seems to be forgotten. As far as they're concerned, if you're not an evangelist or a pastor or whatnot you're some lazy no-good who's saying "no" to God.
Martin Luther once warned us against this attitude. But then, most of the Reformation seems to be forgotten today anyway.
BTW, the fact that you're talking about ministry at all ... does this mean you've decided NOT to go your own way and are still following Jesus? I can't tell you how much it would gratify me if that were the case. Because I can't tell you the black cloud of grief and despair I felt when I read
"Whatever. It doesn't matter. All your Gods can screw themselves. And I won't be coming back to CHR.. Bye.".
Remember writing that?
When I read that ... it was like looking up at the sky and seeing the stars of Orion falling from the sky. As if a part of the very fabric of the universe had been ripped asunder, and in the place where there was life, beauty, and goodness there was simply nothing. A dark spot where a star should have been. My sister was dead ... a spiritual suicide. Someone whom I'd hoped to meet on the fields of Heaven, in glory unstained on fields ever green, would now be separated from me for ever and ever.
I'd have sooner died myself than see that come to pass.
I mourned for you ...literally ... as I did not mourn for the death of my only child. My son, after all, only suffered death of the body. I know I'll see him again. But if you kill yourself body and spirit, how will we ever meet again? It will be a final parting at the end of days, a separation that will outlast the galaxies, outlast the universe itself, a separation that will never, ever end.
I can stand being parted from a friend for a few seasons of earthly life. But for ever and ever? Better that I, myself, was never born then I should see that happen.
So are you telling me such is NOT the case? That I can take off this black and go around my everyday business like a normal human being again? :)
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