Just Pick It Up!

It’s been quite a while since I wrote on this blog - almost five months! I have thought about that several times in the past few weeks especially. I have been busy with work, we are in the process of moving from one state to another and going through 20+ years of accumulation, plus church, family, etc, etc, etc. But God showed me in an instant this morning during church that those are all just surface excuses. I had let the enemy tell me my story was not that interesting. I don’t have that many life changing things to say. Why bother? You have enough to do already! And in that same instant God told me, “Pick it back up.” That simple. Just pick it back up. Get in there and write something down. Let the words flow from what’s in you.

We all tend to think that God is going to use some big personality with a big testimony. But my experience and from what I see in the Bible is that God is just as interested in using everyday people to reach those in their sphere of life. The big names in Christianity can influence many, but we each just need to pick up what’s in our hand, what’s in our life, what God has called us to do and just walk it out. One day at a time.

I remember the night I got saved. I was at a youth group meeting. There was one girl there who was considered a bit “weird” in our small town. I didn’t really know her, but here I sat right beside her in the circle of prayer as we were wrapping up that evening’s meeting. She started crying. Loudly. Somehow, I knew inside me that she was praying and interceding - for me. No words to that effect were spoken, but it rattled me. I went home and for the first time really reached out to God one on one. She didn’t stand up in front of hundreds. She just prayed from her heart at a meeting of less than ten young people. She may not even have known that she was praying for me. But I knew and it changed me forever! It was a month or more later that I publicly went forward in an evangelistic service and formally gave my life to the Lord. But if she hadn’t just done what God called her to do, my story would have been different.

Well, you might say, I don’t know what God wants me to do. How can I do it if I don’t know what it is?! That’s a good question. But if you look deep, you probably know what it is. I remember seeking God about this when I was in the middle of raising three young children. His answer to me then was to follow Him and be a mom. Maybe it’s to just be a light in the grocery story. Maybe He is asking you to go on a mission trip, but maybe He’s just asking you to write a letter of encouragement to someone. Just pick it up and do it!

God’s vision for us doesn’t change but His directions on what to do in the moment will. My role as a mom was super important to those three little girls (who have all grown into three beautiful young women). My role has changed over the years to some degree, but it has often included an aspect of mothering. Sometimes it has been encouraging a young woman to follow her passions, weeping with a mom who has lost the dream of a happy marriage, rejoicing in the birth of another precious one into our world. We all make a difference every single day. Every single day. We can influence others for good or not. It’s our choice. We don’t have to be all things to all people. We just need to be who God has made us to be.

As we are gradually going through things and preparing for this big move I know that my role is changing once again. But I also know that all I need to do is get up every day, spend time with my Father God and then just do what He puts before me for that day. It may not seem big at the time, but if it is what He is telling me to do, it will make a difference and that’s what I want. I want to make a difference in people’s lives. I want them to be better for having known me. I want the world to be a better place. Even if it is just smiling at the grocery clerk who is obviously having a tough day and giving her a reason to smile back.

So my encouragement to you is this, pick up what you have set down because you didn’t think it was important enough or that you didn’t think there was time for or you didn’t want to be made fun of for doing it, and just do it! Let that act of obedience be enough joy to fill your heart. It will fill God’s.