“I’m a Card Sender”
Frequently we find limitations to what we can accomplish despite our desire to be of greater service. The disciples disappointed Jesus in His hour of great need. He returned from fervent prayer to find them sleeping. Jesus observed, ”The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak”(Mk 14:38 NKJV). Many of us are discovering the effects of aging and the limitations that accompany this inevitable process. Others must invest their entire strength into a battle for their very lives. The battle can leave little time for anything else. Still others find youth to be restrictive. It seems an eternity until we are old enough to drive, to find employment, to gain experience and to experience freedom. How many times are we frustrated by the need to stop and rest, to eat, to sleep or to recover from an injury? (1 Cor 12:26) We grow discouraged, weary in both mind and body. David prayed for God to look within him. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139:23, 24). God understands both our spiritual and temporal limitations (He 4:15; 5:1, 2).
Not only do we experience the limitations of the flesh, we face the limitation of our own abilities. This is by design. In comparing the church to the human body we understand that each part has an assigned role. “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body” (1Co 12:18-20 NKJV). “… speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ– from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph 4:15, 16 NKJV). Fortunately, the exercising of our abilities in unison promotes growth and greater effectiveness. This is God’s plan and desire.
Needs are as varied as our abilities. Our various abilities therefore provide opportunity to fill all needs. Some long for gracious words. “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Eph 4:29). Some need rebuking. “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him” (Lu 17:3). Others need comfort. “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1Th 5:11). All need edification (Ro 15:2).
We will be judged by the words we speak and works we perform motivated by our love for God (1 Jn 3:17, 18). We are told that a gesture as simple as providing a cup of water will affect our eternity (Mk 9:40-42). To a guest, a cold drink of water is an act of hospitality. Extending a cup of water to a man dying of thirst means life. A card sent to a friend is an act of hospitality. A card sent to a soul desperate for love and affirmation can be life-changing! Rather than resent our limitations we need to embrace them and employ them for good. Let us all be “Card Senders”.
Ken Fleeman (2018-11-18)