I Do You No Favor

The phrase, ” I do you no favor.”,  has stayed with me for over thirty years.

It was said in a consecration service for a minister who was being elevated to a higher office in the church.

As the presiding minister began to pray he began with a very personal and somber statement, “I do you no favor by placing this responsibility upon you.”

I have never met anyone who did not wish to know why they were born and if there was a specific reason for their birth.

It has become a reoccurring theme in my life to press people toward that reason and purpose.

I believe that each life is not a mistake.

I also believe that each life taken before birth is a tremendous loss to those who could have and would have been impacted by that child whose life was taken.

I further believe that when we receive or discover that purpose for our own life we are to prepare for that purpose to be used and used in a God big way.

And with that gift comes a price, a weight and a responsibility.

Moses accepted his purpose for being born which brought with it many struggles. Many were saved.  Many died.  Yet he was considered a “friend of God”.

The Apostle Paul had a “thorn” in his life that he asked repeatedly to be taken from him.  It was not.

Christ asked God if there was any other way to complete his purpose without laying down his life.  There was not.

Twelve years ago, I was stopped in the middle of a hospital hallway by an elderly woman who began the conversation with, “Are you a minister?”

As I hemmed and hawed as to whether I was or was not, trying to get out of the question with humor, she looked deep into my soul and said, “The blood of those you do not minister to from this point forward will be on your hands.”

She prayed for me in the middle of the hospital hallway.  I hugged her, walked away and I never saw her again.

However, her words, I believe straight from God, will remain with me for the rest of my life.

Whatever your purpose is, it will come with the weight of responsibility that you must carry for the extent of your life.

It will either be a weight that you carry because you accepted your purpose and used your gift.

Or it will be a weight that you carry because you rejected your purpose and did not use your gift.

The weight of the latter is heavier than the weight of the former.

Either way, you will carry the weight.

Someone said to me recently, “Quite honestly, I wish at times, God had given this gift to someone else and allowed me to live my own life and do what I want to do.”

And it is a heavy weight that they carry.  Yet they do it.

Two quotes to consider for the day as it relates to who you are and the weight you must carry each day.

“I am out here for YOU.  You do not know what it’s like to be ME out here for YOU.  It is an up at dawn, pride swallowing, siege that I will never fully tell you about.  Help me, help you.  Help ME…help YOU.”  Jerry Maguire

The other quote?

“Not my will…but your will be done.”  Jesus Christ

JHH