One evening, Bill was sitting on the front pew, waiting for the service to begin. The boy came and sat down right next to him, snuggling real close. Then he looked at Bill and asked, “Why are you a preacher?”
Bill replied, “Because that is what God told me He wanted me to be.” The little boy paused a moment and then stated with confidence, “God told me to just be a kid.”
Bill then asked, “I wonder how many of God’s people really know just what God wants them to be?”
Arthur Schopenhaur, a German philosopher, once observed, “We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”
Are you trying to be like someone else? Others may tell you to be yourself, and that may work as far as some things go. But the follower of Christ forfeits nothing in order to be like Someone Else-- Jesus Christ. In fact, he or she never fully finds fulfillment in life until Jesus is followed wholeheartedly, until he loses himself in the goal of becoming more and more like Christ.
In her book Beside A Quiet Stream, Penelope Stokes shared these words of wisdom:
“There's a great liberty that comes with knowing ourselves. The freedom that enables us to take risks, to grow, to change, to set sail for horizons we’ve only seen in our dreams. Who are we? We are people, made--lovingly, and with great care--in the image of our creator. We don't have to work ourselves into a frenzy to prove ourselves. We don't have to be super-spiritual or indispensable. We only have to be who we are.”
Has God told you to just be a kid? Then be one. But has God called you to something else? Be the individual God has called you to be, and follow Him with all your heart.
Proverbs 3:6 reads, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com