Stepping Out: For Such a Time as This

One of my aunts collects dolls. Her house is full of dolls of all sizes and makes, and they almost literally line every surface of her home. I remember visiting her once when I was young and looking at a bookcase full of these dolls that were still kept in their original packaging. My aunt had never taken the dolls from the cases where they were kept, because that might decrease their value -- the dolls might be damaged, or lost, if they were played with. So she kept them tightly sealed away to be only looked at with the eyes, and never with the hands.

I get it; collectors seal away the things they collect in order to maintain and increase their value. But I sure did wish I could pull a few of those dolls out and play with them (to note: my aunt let me play with other "less important" dolls while I was visiting).

So this morning in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9. Paul starts out with gratefulness to the Lord as he does in most of his letters -- an incredible example, by the way. How often do I begin my prayer times with: "Lord, please help me to..." How often He answers and gives generously and does miraculous things in my life, and I brush over them with the merest glance and jump right into the prayer request section.

Paul writes: "I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in Him you have been enriched in every way -- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge..."

A relatively new-to-me word I've heard tossed around among some of my friends is the word: Awesomesauce. You got an A on your exam? That's awesomesauce. You made a personal best on your marathon run? That's totally awesomesauce. My husband is awesomesauce, 'cause he's got ninja skills, etc.

"For in Him you have been enriched in every way..." In a manner of speaking, Paul is pouring awesomesauce over the Corinthian church, the people to whom he's writing. Not only are you doing good things, he's saying, but the Lord has enriched you in every way. He's giving you spiritual shellac, the shiny veneer put on a product of worth. 

When I finish drawing a picture or painting a landscape, I keep a bottle of sealer that I spray lightly over the completed work, because the spray coats my work while also enhancing the colors, making them more vibrant. The Lord protects His own by enriching His people in every way, enhancing us as He brings out and uses our gifts.

I love this, because the Lord knows how inadequate I am on my own, how faulty my words are, how incomplete and inept... and far too often, I am Moses standing in front of the burning bush: Lord, send someone else to do it, for I am slow of speech and speak with halting tongue. 

This morning, the Holy Spirit put this song into my head almost as soon as I sat down to pray: Take Me In -- a beautiful song from Petra, released in the 1989 and based on Isaiah 6:8. Check out these lyrics:

Take me past the outer courts
Into the holy place,
Past the brazen altar;
Lord, I want to see Your face. 

Pass me by the crowds of people,
And the priests who sing your praise.
I hunger and thirst for Your righteousness,
and it's only found one place.

Take me in to the Holy of Holies;
Take me in by the blood of the Lamb.
Take me in to the Holy of Holies;
Take the coal, cleanse my lips; here I am.

There's a prayer here that my heart resonates with: Take me off the shelf and use me. The Lord didn't place us here to be put in a display case, kept behind glass walls, to be viewed from a distance. He gave each one of us gifts to be used for His glory. 

1 Corinthians 1:7 says: "Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." Since 1 Corinthians 12 makes it clear that not all followers of Christ will have every spiritual gift, I assume "you" here is the collective you. As my Spanish teacher used to tell us: A great translation of the "collective you" was "all y'all." So, "Therefore, all y'all do not lack any spiritual gift..."

Paul's talking to all of the Corinthian church and to all of the global church now... all y'all (me, too): We do not lack spiritual gifts as we eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

Paul dives into spiritual gifts in much greater depth in other places in 1 Corinthians, so I'll go into those more when we get there, but I'll offer this for now: Romans 12:6: "We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith."

Some of us are timidly stepping out of the glass display cabinet, looking around, fearful of what might happen if we, you know, use a gift of the Holy Spirit. Others of us have walked through the timidity and have stepped into the fire -- ministering effectively. The point remains, though, that both the ones who are only beginning to dip their toes into the gifts they've received from the Holy Spirit and those who have been using their gifts through increasing faith -- are serving the Lord through His rich gifts.

I've heard some friends claim: "I don't have any gifts of the Holy Spirit." They've looked through the "lists" given in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 and Romans 12 and other places, and they feel inadequate. 

Let me encourage you: You have exactly the gift(s) the Holy Spirit gives you ("Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift" - 1 Corinthians 1:7), and He will enable you to use them. 

Listen to the internal conversation that often runs through my head: The Holy Spirit tells me: Go tell that person [something relevant to the situation]. I back up: But Lord, they'll laugh at me. The Holy Spirit nudges: So? I protest some more, in effect drowning out that still, small voice: Lord, what if I'm wrong? What if it's just me thinking this and not You putting this call on me? The voice of the Holy Spirit gets even quieter behind my internal noise, so quiet, it's almost less than a whisper: Will you go?

The choice is mine. I can choose to listen to the Spirit's call, or I can climb back on the shelf and close the glass door as a protective front. It doesn't mean that I am lost, that I am no longer a child of God as I run in fear (Elijah ran away, and look how the Lord transported him into glory: A chariot of fire stopped by, picked him up, and pounded off into glory. What a way to go! Elijah also "went back the way he came," though, too. But he did have a moment of "running away."). 

But let me encourage you: The moment you get off the shelf and step into the faith-filled role the Holy Spirit sets before you, you're stepping into fire. But fire hurts. Oh, but y'all, fire strips away the fluff, too. It brings out the molten gold beneath. I'm talking about the Refining Fire from Malachi 3:3. You're stepping into a whole new level of richness, a whole new walk with the Lord when you walk into the unknown territory beyond the display case.

This morning, the Holy Spirit brought me back to the story of Esther, a beautiful young Jewish girl caught up in the Persian king's edict that all the most gorgeous girls of the land be brought into the king's harem. He would choose a new wife from one of them, and Esther was the pick. 

I thought about this: How unfair for Esther. Being a part of the king's harem meant position, wealth, comfort, sure, but it also stripped her of the possibility of love beyond the great Xerxes -- who, with such a collection of women, is unlikely to have truly loved Esther in return. She faced a long life of living among other beautiful women who were at the beck and call of the king... a trophy wife, put back on a shelf when he was done using her. 

I wonder if she ever asked the Lord: "What's the point, God? What is my purpose except to be a trophy on Xerxes' display case?"

And then we take a step back, look at Mordecai's (Esther's cousin's) words from Esther 4:13-14: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house, you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

So Esther has a decision to make: She can sit quietly in her box, unused, unwrapped, untouched... or she can unlock the display case where she's standing, and step out in faith that she is doing the exact thing she's supposed to do with the position, the gift, she's been given. 

"Then Esther sent this replay to Mordecai: 'Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

Boy, she stepped into the fire. "If I perish, I perish" isn't a throw-away, thoughtless sentence. Y'all, stepping outside of the display case isn't without risks. As a child looking at my aunt's display case, if I had been allowed to play with those dolls, careful as my intentions may have been, it's likely the ringletted curls on some of those dolls wouldn't have looked the same after my fingers had brushed over the hair. Perhaps dirt smudges may have appeared on some of the clothing or the porcelain finish.

In my aunt's case, the purpose of the dolls was collecting and displaying. But what's our purpose, as a part of Christ's body? We do have a purpose: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10). 

So, like Mordecai said: "If you remain silent, relief and deliverance will arise from another place..."

If we stay on the shelf, it won't derail the Lord's plans... but He will call someone else to step into the path He's laid out for you. 

Moses said: "Lord, send someone else." And the Lord brought along Aaron to speak for Moses, because of his stage fright (this hits home; I am terrified of speaking in front of people). 

Isaiah said: "Here I am, Lord; send me." 

Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28:19-20: "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

The Holy Spirit equips us with various gifts to do just that. The point is, you've got a decision to make; I've got a decision to make. Do I push open the door and step into the fiery faith that will be both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time? Or do I sit on my comfortable, slightly dusty shelf, content to let "relief and deliverance arise from another quarter?"

Let's choose wisely.