Silver Bells and Cockle
Shells
How does your garden grow? For years you've been planting ideas, dreams, deeds, and attitudes in the soil of your life. The fragrance and fruit of your plantings are now affecting others. I'm talking about your ministry — the nourishment your life gives someone else. Ministry is the expression of what is inside you; it is the outflow of what you are.
Technically, ministry means to serve, help, or comfort on behalf of someone else. In Britain the word is used of government agencies designed to help people; for example, the Ministry of Education. Educational aid is given on behalf of the government. When we use the word ministry in a Christian sense, we carry this same idea. Service, encouragement, comfort given on behalf of someone else, and that Someone is God. Unfortunately, ministry has become a professional, clerical word meant only for those on the payroll of the church. Rather it is meant to be the overflow of the life of God in a person.
Ministry implies the importance of people. Jesus said that whenever someone gives a cup of water to a thirsty person, feeds the hungry, or clothes the naked, it is the same as if it were done to Him. That's how important people are to God. When David finally confessed his sin with Bathsheba to God, he said his sin had been against God. Why? Not just because David had broken the law, but the law was there in the first place because God made Bathsheba, and her personhood was important to Him. The entire Bible spells out the importance of people in God's sight. The two great commandments tell us to love God with our whole being, and our neighbor as our self. When God fills a life with Himself, ministry is a natural fruit.
Let's take a look at your ministry. You may be one of those people who think of ministry in terms of a stirring talk, a magnificent prayer or a beautiful song. A public performance means ministry to you and you say, "I have no ministry." If you really have no ministry, it is not for lack of a talent but because of inner barrenness. The influence of a growing, aware life with God will always be more profound than you know. You may not be shouting, "Look at me ministering" but that's just as well. That kind of ministering leads to pride. It's like having too much sun in your garden; it dries out the roots.
I've always liked Barnabas, whom I met in the book of Acts. His chief ministry seemed to be that of encouraging other people. When others were wary of a converted Paul, Barnabas found him and encouraged him to exercise his ministry. Paul became the outstanding missionary, but Barnabas' encouragement got him going. Later when Paul was disappointed with the instability of John Mark, it was Barnabas who took John Mark as his companion and encouraged him in the ministry.
Encouragement is a spiritual ministry; it is God's ministry to you. He always encourages you. If you feel discouraged, you'll find Satan is the source of discouragement. Check out
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your own garden. Is encouragement one of the strong plants in your life? Encouragement brings out the best in people; it is love taking hold of another hand and placing it in the courage of God.
Everyone can share in this ministry. It takes various forms — understanding, listening, sowing seeds of praise, praying, sharing a godly perspective, or simply saying, "I'm sticking with you." I don't mean Pollyanna-sunshine talk that doesn't face a real world. Encouragement is the overflow of the life of God in you.
Sometimes I think a mother has almost a fulltime ministry of encouragement. My mother set the tone for our whole day by her attitude toward us as we awoke each morning. She often had a song, and always a word of good cheer. The critical, nagging mother can effectively ruin a whole day before it begins. It takes a good portion of creativity to encourage children to be their very best. It's a tough world out there, as you already know.
Hashing over past naughtiness and spouting out negative expectations produces naughtiness and negative behavior. You get what you expect. Encouragement, on the other hand, can help a child to believe in himself and in God.
And what of encouraging your parents as they grow older or your fellow teacher or the neighbor in the next apartment? Anyone who herself is encouraged by God can encourage others. That's the secret. In the Old Testament when David was beset by danger from King Saul, the Scripture reads, "David found strength [encouragement] in the Lord his God" (1 Samuel 30:6). Then David was in a position to encourage others.
The mother in the grocery store, chastising and humiliating her child with loud, angry words that have a far more lasting sting than a spanking, demonstrates the life that
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has no inflow of divine resources. She lives an uptight life, and probably has many complaints to share with her husband and friends. But who encourages her? What a difference a positive word could make in her life. Encouragement has a ripple effect, flowing out to others. Encouragement! What a magnificent fragrance comes from you. Lord, sow such seeds liberally in our lives.
I have a beautiful friend with five small children. She is sensitive to each child's needs in an unusual way and tries to encourage each one where they need it. And her spirit is catching. I notice that the children encourage each other because of her encouragement. They were all at the school program together one night to watch David perform. He goofed and missed his cue, and the whole family suffered with him, knowing how much it meant to him to do well. Afterward, I heard them as they gathered around David, who bemoaned his error. One sympathized, another mentioned how clearly he spoke his lines — each one thought of something encouraging to say to comfort David, because he was so important to his family.
Anyone who wants a worldwide ministry needs only to learn to pray. Prayer unleashes the activity of God on behalf of those brought before Him — and it changes us. It is the most enriching of ministries because it brings us into God's presence. We become like the people with whom we spend time. But prayer is the most neglected of ministries. Too often our humanness wants our ministry to be seen by others. We need visible, immediate response. No one knows how much we pray, except God. Jesus told us to pray in secret, but assured us that our heavenly Father sees in secret. And He gives His rewards.
Too many of us would rather fuss and feel sorry for ourselves than pray. Prayer can keep a husband on track,
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realizing the best for his personal life. Prayer can take away a mother's bitterness, can change a father's drunkenness, can alter situations and attitudes, can keep children safe in a strife-filled school. Job prayed for his children, lest they be careless in sinning. Hannah prayed for a godly son. You can pray for a calm heart, a gentle spirit, and for all the sensitive miracles needed in the dynamics of your life.
The King James Version of the Bible uses the word succour when it speaks of the help God offers in time of need. It means adequate, appropriate help. I was reading Hebrews 2 one day in my quiet time and I began questioning what kind of help God would offer. What would the quality of His help be? It came to me forcefully that He would offer only holy help. It would be consistent with His character. Then I saw why I didn't always go to Him for the help I needed. If the help offered was holy then I would have to change. That meant self-pity had to go, attitudes would have to be changed. Praying invites God to change our situation — and us.
And you can pray beyond your walls. Years ago we were asked to call on a sick woman from our church. We visited her, hoping to give encouragement, and came away twice blessed. The woman was old, bed-ridden, and childless. Her husband in his own feebleness took loving care of her. Essentially both of them were cut off from active participation in the world. Yet next to her bed the husband had devised a pyramid stand that turned on a swivel. The faces of the pyramid were covered with the pictures of missionaries. When she could not sleep in the night, she turned toward her missionary pictures and prayed for hours for their needs to be met and for the needs of the world. Together they were remarkably well-informed. From the newspaper, the radio, the television, and letters they kept abreast of what was happening. They prayed for kings and governments,
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for councils and mayors, for school superintendents and police chiefs.
One day when we stopped to see her, she was almost ecstatic with joy. She had heard a man speak over the radio and felt that doctrinally he lacked sound teaching. She had no way to get to him, except to pray that God would somehow show him his error. The doorbell had rung that afternoon, and the radio speaker stood on the doorstep as a visitor. He had heard of this remarkable bed-ridden woman through a friend and felt he should call. He was as pleased as she when she shared the story of her concern. Mother Cranston did not physically leave her house for years, and yet families, individuals, society itself felt the impact of her ministry, and some of them were prayed to her front door.
Jesus said, "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." We live in a day when people have hearts failing from fear. Tensions in the school. The breakdown of moral codes. Increase in crime. Why not have ministry of praying, instead of complaining!
In many ways it is easier to pray with someone than alone. Your spiritual life and ministry will grow if you find a compatible prayer-partner. It's something to ask God for. Meeting regularly to pray with a friend for your personal needs and hers will provoke the kind of honest sharing that will bring you both closer to the Lord. You will be simply astounded at what will happen as you talk to God together.
Recently a woman shared with me a concern for a daughter who was rebellious and operating in open warfare against her parents. We talked about some possible causes that might be eliminated, because practical objective wisdom is part of our ministry to others. But then I asked if she and her husband, both of whom claimed to know God, could spend fifteen minutes every evening praying for their daughter.
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Her eyes dropped, she hesitated and was reluctant. Her attitude showed where some of the problem was. I suggested she begin praying that they could pray!
A quiet ministry comes from what we are. God is always more concerned about what we are than what we do. And if we are self-centered and shallow, petty and critical, then we need to pull handfuls of weeds from the garden so some other plants can flourish. God's promises are not to the slothful and negligent. He expects us to become. There are women who minister unconsciously to others out of a wealth of good thinking. They make it their business to read the right books to appreciate what is worthwhile, while at the same time living with the problems of a real world. In other words, they have it put together. Life, that is.
Women need to "nourish their souls with good works, give it peace in solitude, get it strength in prayer, make it wise with reading, enlighten it by meditation, make it tender with love, sweeten it with psalms and hymns, and comfort it with frequent reflections upon future glory."1 You may ask, Who has time for that? We had better find time along the way and order our priorities. Our older years will be as rich as we are making them today. Almost everyone has some luxury to meditate and love and sing and reflect — and even read and have some solitude — if they plan it that way. Why else do we have all these wonderful labor-saving devices in our homes? It's awesome, but you will be forever what you are becoming today.
Gifts obviously vary greatly in the exercising of ministry. The Bible speaks of this realistically, and says that in the body the greater parts cannot say they do not need the lesser parts. It is only as everyone ministers that the needs of the whole body are met. The challenge in exercising a gift in the ministry is to do for others rather than to do for self-gratification.
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The musician who wants to minister to others will keep the needs of her audience in mind. Otherwise she may show excellent voice control and a marvelous range, but there will be no ministry. Teachers do not teach subjects. they teach people, if they want to minister. Home makers make a home for people, not for the sake of perfection. Good cooks prepare food for enjoyment, not for praise.
I think of a diligent woman who volunteered to be in charge of the visual aid materials for a small school. She wanted a ministry. She became obsessed with the perfection of the materials and their arrangement. She worked very hard, and did an excellent job. But she became possessive. Procedures for the use of materials became so complicated that people stopped using them. She had a perfect department with no ministry. People are the point of any ministry, and we do well to remind ourselves of this.
Serving others ought to help us reach outside our own homes and families. We begin at home. Those who cannot minister to the people who are closest to them are unwilling to face the basic relationships of life. Their motivation is self-gratification, not ministry. It's not uncommon to find a woman who will involve herself deeply in a counseling ministry with others but won't listen to her own mother for more than five minutes. She is expansive with understanding for the stranger, but critical of her own family. There are many ways to hide behind her career and her fatigue, increasingly living an in-grown life. And neither of these may be aware of what they are doing.
I was so pleased when Alice moved into her own apartment. Now she could invite some of her single teacher friends home
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for a meal and hopefully a meaningful conversation. She had a place where she could initiate a Bible study. I knew some of the people with whom she taught and several were hurting inside and needed some love and understanding. But Alice didn't respond to either her apartment or God that way. Her concept of stewardship of possessions was nil, and she grew increasingly content to schedule her life around her television set. It was not until she went to a conference where a speaker honed in on the lordship of Christ that the veil came from before her eyes.
Opportunities to minister are thousand-fold. The neighborhood Bible study, or the study in the office. A good lending library, with enthusiasm for books. Transporting and working with handicapped children in a special program. Visiting a disabled person at their home and seeing if they need any projects done. Volunteer work at a hospital. Remembering to bring something small, but beautiful to a friend. Just plain thoughtfulness. Listening to others. Teaching a Sunday school class. Leading a study group. Helping in the kitchen. Some years ago I read about a Mrs. Ethel Miller in Washington State who heard of the need for surgical tools in mission hospitals. She began to wonder if doctors didn't collect more tools than they needed, just as she did in her kitchen. She called two doctors she knew, and they both had equipment they willingly donated. It began with a small project to help one mission hospital. Today she and a group of retired people ship enormous quantities of drug samples and surgical supplies to Africa and Asia. She's been doing this for years, since the day she first said "yes" to God when He prompted the idea.
We are whole people, and we need to see that ministry comes out of what we are. Now it's time to talk about our verbal witness to God's grace. In sharing the good news of salvation we are often tempted to pour truth over another's head.
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I have heard the phrase, "I gave her a witness," or "I witnessed to her," and I wondered what they meant. Did it mean that she said something religious or gave a Scripture verse or what? How we live must support our words. We cannot avoid the discipline of having God work out His beauty in our lives, and when we share Jesus Christ with someone else it is in the context of this discipline.
The really Christian home is a great boon to sharing our faith. It is like a city set on a hill which cannot be hid. In any neighborhood when others observe a family trusting God, forgiving each other, affirming each other as people, living together in loving relationship, they take a second look: What does this family have? They see a "redemptive society" within the family, reflecting the reality of the Christian message.
The same thing takes place wherever people are truly Christian in their behavior patterns. Thoughtfulness, encouragement, helpfulness, a loving attitude — these all create a natural climate in which to share faith.
If what you believe means anything at all to you, you will find yourself speaking about it to others. You must speak. No one finds life in Christ simply by admiring the way you live. They must believe in Christ personally. Many non-Christians have healthy, whole ways of living, and unless you talk about your faith no one will be able to tell the difference.
Someone has defined sharing your faith as "one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." I like that because it underscores the necessity for humility in sharing your faith. A redeemed sinner speaks, not a religious superior. If you "blow it" you can ask to be forgiven! Second, it emphasizes the need. People are lost, hungry, empty, dead in their sins without God. Some of them feel uneasy because they already suspect this is true; others have not begun to define their need. Having experienced what it means to be forgiven,
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to be made a member of God's family, you've got good news to share. You know what they need to know.
This necessitates your understanding the big picture of what the gospel really is all about. You want to communicate the heart of the message, without cultural trimmings, in a way that makes sense. And it does make sense. Man feels alienated from God. He can either try to rationalize why this is so, or he can come to terms with the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the meaning of the death of Christ, and what it means to live a Christian life under the lordship of Christ. But people have to hear the message in order to believe.
Hearing can come in a variety of settings. You can invite someone to church, but that is less personal and can make the person feel self-conscious. Someone may ask, "What do you believe?" which gives you a free opportunity to share. But more often we need to take time, to invest ourselves in communication which maximizes the person's opportunity to understand. Learn to ask questions. Jesus did this all the time. A good question can set in motion a whole process of understanding the inadequacy of unbelief and the sensibility of belief. If you are alert you will find that everyday conversation affords many opportunities for such questions or the remark which provokes a further query from your friend. We need to learn how to relax, be honest, and speak openly. The natural witness is more effective than the contrived, and we are not in this alone. God cares about other people far more than we do. He has invested the life of His Son in their redemption. He simply asks us to share the message.
Small group Bible studies provide a natural setting for learning and sharing together. Three or four — and certainly no more than ten — discussing a passage of Scripture can be like dynamite in individual lives. Ask, don't tell. Use a good
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discussion guide that insists that you go back to the biblical text to discover what it is saying. Groups like these in neighborhoods, in schools, in offices, and in homes are changing people. Those involved are experiencing the joy of sharing their own faith. This works for the married, the single, teenagers — wherever people are prepared to think.
The potential for our ministry is the potential found in the heart of a creative God. We need to say, "May I?" to God, not "Must I?" And if our will is set on reaching out, our faith will take us beyond the obstacles or difficulties we see. The willing heart, the full to overflowing heart — the possessors of these have an influence all out of proportion to their person. How pathetic to come in close contact with many lives and to have made no notable difference to others. Influencing others is inevitable when we have furnished our spirits with good things.
My favorite poet, Luci Shaw, expresses my own heart in her poem Hundredfold.
Yesterday
(after first frost, with maples
blazing beyond fringes of stubble hay)
my husband and my sons
pulled up dead summer's stalks of corn
laying them flat among the weeds
for plowing in again when next spring's born.
I'm glad I picked the green tomatoes
two nights ago
and spread them, newspapered
to ripen on the basement floor
good company for the corn relish, row
and golden row in jars behind the closet door.
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Yes, I'm very glad something's left — something not dead
after all the hilling and hoeing
seeding and sprouting, greening and growing —
after the blowing
tassels high as a woman's hand above her head.
Corn relish for Sunday dinner — grace
the days when outside snowings
whiten winter's face!
Let me leave fruit
(but not in someone's basement)
when I grow browned
and old and pulled up by the root
and laid down flat
and ploughed into the ground.2
