Polly Want a Plant?

One of my favorite movies, Pixar's Wall-E, where one little plant becomes a huge hope.

I feel like sometimes I am just a parrot, repeating things that others have spoken faithfully into my life.

Thankfully, this is not a bad thing!

Growing up one of my favorite bands was Newsboys. One of their songs, “Stepping up to the microphone” has a line that says:

“I say hello
To anyone who's listening
The message ain't nothing new
I don't decide what's true.”

The story of Jesus doesn’t change. People, especially in the “Christian Culture” are looking for the newest revelation, the coolest new song, the hippest new message. Sadly, this becomes their pursuit instead of the pursuit of their relationship with Christ. So if your coming to my blog for the newest thing in Christian culture, I’m sorry but you are going to be gravely disappointed.

Recently, I’ve been going 100 miles an hour with work and volunteering. It’s been exhausting. But having God work through my life and seeing the miracles that have happened has been amazing. I’ve recently had the privilege of talking to one survivor of human trafficking that sought us out and wants to help others like her. We put a call out for musical instruments for our safe house and God provided a piano!

However, I’m starting to get to the point where I don’t know if I can give any more of myself. I feel like I’m giving and giving and giving. On the inside, I feel like a used rag that keeps cleaning up messes.

Then I see a tweet from Christine Caine, “When you ask God to use you, don’t complain when you feel used!”

Touché Mrs. Caine. Excellent point. I did ask God to use me and I am super excited that He has!

However, the way God has used me has been much different than I anticipated. Thankfully, I’m normal. God’s grace and plan for our lives usually looks different than what we expect. I was reading John chapter 12 today. Jesus dines at the table of Lazarus (whom he raised from the dead) with his sisters Martha and Mary. Mary, moved by Jesus’ love and affection for her, took a pound of expensive ointment and poured it on Jesus’ feet. She then proceeded to wipe his feet with her hair. Many, including the man who eventually betrayed Jesus, were appalled at this action. They said, “This ointment could be sold to raise money for the poor.” But Jesus called them out on their lust for money and prestige rather than their compassion for the poor.

How many of us in ministry think that the only way we can reach people is to have an event or a fundraiser? Then, we use the "success" of our event or fundraiser to give us the prestige or honor we feel we deserve in the Christian community. All that ends up happening is we create a "formula" to ministry and if an idea doesn’t fit, we immediately strike it down. Then we never reach people who eagerly await to hear about the love of Christ they have been searching for!

Mary was showing her love for Jesus and didn’t care if it fit a formula or what people thought of her. Ironically, when we reach out to women in brothels as a part of our ministry, feet washing has been the key to getting in the door in the first place and showing love to these women. Jesus don’t exist inside the box. We, in ministry, shouldn’t confine ourselves to it either. We are creative beings by design and we should also be creative and open minded in how we minister to others.

Hawk Nelson says it well in a song called “Outside the Lines:”

"Don't worry, you'll do just fine.
Our God is working all of the time.
And when the sun comes up,
You'll see He paints outside the lines.
He paints outside the lines."

I’ll conclude with this. Jesus frequently used parables, metaphors and the like to get the lesson across. Later in John 12, he talks about a grain of wheat. Essentially, a seed. He says in verses 24-26, that a grain of wheat has the potential to become a plant and bear much fruit. However, unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it will remain alone. But if it does fall into the Earth and die, it will make many more seeds which can also have the potential to bear much fruit.

However, biologically speaking, the seed has to actually die in order to transition from a seed to a plant. If the seed isn’t in the right soil, it will never have the opportunity to die. Unless the seed dies, it will never become a plant. Unless the plant gets the nutrients it needs, it will never produce fruit. If it never produces fruit, there will never be another wheat plant.

We have heard of this process a million times both in biology class and the church. We are created as humans to have the ability to produce fruit of the Spirit that overflows into others who need it. However, unless we die to ourselves and our pride and be transformed by the love of Christ, we will never have the ability to transition from a seed to a plant. Unless we take care of ourselves spiritually as well as physically, we will never grow. If we never grow, we will never produce new fruit and give others the ability to transition from seeds to plants.

Unless we put ourselves through the process of being used by God, we will never see the greatness and the glory of Christ. God never works the same way. We should never put a boundary or a box around how God can work. And when other people are eating the fruit we produce and learning about God, we should smile and know God is using us to reach others.

And that’s what it’s all about. :)