I like the title of this post because it sounds like a Flip Wilson skit from the old Laugh In series (maybe it is and I’m excavating an old memory).
I’m feeling inspired to write about ministries today after listening to a Maryanne Williamson talk from Letting Go and Becoming.
In this particular recording, she talks about how we (I) tend to believe that we must wait for some divine sign from God that we are now ready to begin our new lives. I know I often wish God would be less subtle and would communicate with me via burning bushes and pillars of fire. I couldn’t ignore a pillar of fire.
But while I’m hanging waiting for God to kick me in the ass, my life is still happening. Which brings up another tendency of mine: to feel as though life only happens when I’m engaged in positive, meaningful activity. Logically, this isn’t the case.
Life happens no matter what the circumstances. The earth keeps spinning. I’m still breathing, the cells in my body are still taking in nourishment, growing, and dividing. Nothing stops. It is only a perception of my ego that somehow this waiting time doesn’t count for anything.
It’s also possible that I’ll look back one day and see this time as one of my happiest so why not enjoy it?
This brings up the issue of having a ministry. The context in which I’m using the term “Ministry” is not about having a church or being ordained (even via a correspondence course).
Being a minister and having a ministry is very simply you or I doing the work in which we are vessels for God’s love. I always loved the example of Johnny Appleseed who walked alone through the United States when it was a very new country planting apple seeds along the way so that eventually those seeds would take root and feed future generations.
Johnny Appleseed did his work alone and died before most of the seeds he planted bore any fruit at all. Yet I think is a wonderful example of someone who was a minister doing God’s work.
You don’t need to be an unconventional wanderer like Johnny Appleseed to be a minister. I believe that when any of us do work that comes from a place of love, we are ministers with ministries. You could be a CPA or a garbage collector or own a dry cleaning business. The only question is are you doing this from a place of love and service?
Yesterday, I had jury duty. I felt very angry and resentful that I had to disrupt my day to drive downtown and sit in a stuffy room with about 250 other people because I might be needed as a juror. I was feeling lousy because I had a sinus infection which just made the situation that much worse.
As I was drowsing through the explanatory video about jury service, a little voice inside me said, “What if this is your ministry? Are you acting from love?” And that perked me up and made me feel curious.
Nothing happened. I didn’t meet anyone or have a profound conversation with the guy sitting next to me. But it reminded me that I never know and that each moment counts in my life. To not let life just happen and hope sooner or later something meaningful will happen.
My ministry is happening right now.
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