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Summer, 2016 is coming to an end. I have long ago recognized that the concept
of the lazy days of summer is unrealistic, but I do appreciate the more relaxed
schedule and opportunities for outdoor activities that summer offers. As we enter the Fall season of back to school
and back to ministry, I am afraid that I sometimes “fall” into a
“back-to-the-grind” mindset. But I am
coming to understand that the Lord wants more—and better—for me.
Please consider with me a passage in C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. King Caspian of Narnia, along with his crew
and Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace from our world, have sailed on a long journey
from Narnia. They have accomplished
Caspian’s mission to find the missing Lords who served his father, but they
have not yet sailed to the end of the world.
Many of Caspian’s sailors are tired and want to rest and then return
home to Narnia as soon as possible. But
sailing to the end of the world is an opportunity not to be taken lightly. As his sailors begin to grumble and groan at
the prospect, please listen along with them as Caspian speaks:
“’Friends,’ he said. ‘I think you have not quite understood our
purpose. You talk as if we had come to
you with our hat in our hand, begging for shipmates. It isn’t like that at all. We…have an errand to the world’s edge. It is our pleasure to choose from among such
of you as are willing those whom we deem worthy of so high an
enterprise….’ ‘Aslan’s mane!’ he
exclaimed. ‘Do you think that the
privilege of seeing the last things is to be bought for a song?’”
It seems to me that continuing, returning, or beginning
ministry endeavors is much the same as sailing to the end of the world with
King Caspian. It may demand much of us,
but the reward far outweighs that demand.
We don’t have to do
ministry. We get to do ministry. A friend
of mine, a thoughtful pastor in the Bible belt, commented to me recently that
he likes to say that they don’t use people to do ministry but rather they use
ministry to do people. Ministry is an
opportunity to partake in the nature of Christ and participate in His kingdom
purposes. It is a powerful tool for the
Lord to make us more fit for heaven as we use His gifts in relationship with
one another. It is a high calling and
not to be taken lightly.
As we enter this new season, may we approach ministry
opportunities as a glorious, heaven-sent invitation to join our Lord’s work in
preparation for His party.
