Tools are absolutely useless, unless…

used by a crafter.

Have you ever prayed asking God to be a ‘vessel’?  To be used by him, a tool that can contribute to His will?

I know I have, and yet, I find myself at times frozen with fear when I know I’m called to do something.  Like talk to someone who looks lonely that you don’t even know across the street.  It’s easy to talk to a lonely friend, or family member.  There is nothing wrong with being used to reach our close ones, but what about the others?

I can’t even count how many good intentional thoughts I’ve had of spending a Saturday to go buy food and spread it around Nashville to those on the streets who probably wouldn’t eat that day.  But once I get past the initial idea of serving, I feel good about it, then I forget about it.  Myself and I aren’t great accountability partners.

I think our problem is in a world of distractions and luxury, we easily hideout in our shell when the thought of doing God’s will is challenged with action.  We begin to, well, stutter.

I feel if we truly held on to the truth of what our purpose is, we’d find it easier to serve.  To do this, we need to do a little bit of stripping ourselves from the things that holds us back from moving forward.

I am a graphic designer, and when I came to where I work now, I came with the knowledge of what I am there to do.  If I showed up and watched the people around me make phone calls, write reports, and do other things not pertaining to design, and I started doing what they did, after years of doing what I see around me, I’d forget what I was here to do.  Obviously that is a far fetched analogy and the point was to say, I was brought here for a specific job.  Not to do what I see around me but what I was there for personally.

First off, we were created because God wanted to create us.  It’s pretty simple really.  With that knowledge, we are ever so blessed to even be alive.  In turn for him created us, He wanted us to love Him.  Not by making us love Him, but us choosing to love Him.  So, God created us selflessly, loving us, hoping that we would do what He truly wants us to do, love Him.

Scripture states, that if we love him, we will obey his commandments.  So, lets take the emotional aspect out of love.  Emotions are a great part of love, and are definitely needed, but sometimes, when we’re asked to do something, we don’t always feel that desire or emotion of excitement to ‘do’ something.  So when times are hard, and God is asking us to obey him and we don’t completely understand why, we have to go back to truth that says, If we love Him, we will obey Him.

So back to being used as a tool.  Most times, we want to be used as a tool in the way that we want to be used as.  We don’t see Noah building a sweet motor on the back of the ark so instead of him ending up where he did, he can maneuver his way to paradise in the virgin islands.  He obeyed God, and without the rain delivered by God, the vessel had no purpose.  The purpose was to show a story of obedience, of God delivering Noah and many animals and then promising this would never happen again.  Noah and his family (and the animals) had to just rest, and trust that the ark that God told Noah to build would actually work.

When the ark was lifted by the waters and Noah and his family were saved from the flood, I see a couple of incredible things that stand out.  One, Noah obeyed God, and he and his family were saved.  Another cool thing was, the vessel itself didn’t do anything but float on the water.  The vessel was used to provide shelter and to remind Noah and us reading thousands of years later of God’s provision.  In obedience in what God tells us to do, the outcome is worth it.

Now, one thing I don’t want to confuse anyone with is, just because we must do exactly what God is moving us to do in the way that He wants us to doesn’t mean that illuminates all creativity with that.  God created us in his image.  In some way, we all have a desire to be creative.  It’s the overall direction and purpose of God’s calling that we must obey, and in that, selflessly be creative with pursuing obedience to Him.  A few examples is how an artist paints, or how a writer writes, or a singer sings.  As long as truth is the ultimate foundation of why we do things, our gifts and talents become used for God.  And sometimes, we just need to do things even if it’s out of our ‘qualifications’ like the story of Moses.  Whatever it is that God puts in our hearts we must do in the way he wants it done.

If we love Him, we will obey Him.  He wants us to love Him, and also love His people.

So this is a challenge to myself.  If I see someone in need, well then, I need to meet that need if I can.

I need to be a tool in the way the crafter can use me, because without the crafter, I have no purpose in what it is I can do.

Phil