There is Greatness in You
I had the opportunity to speak at Charge United, our student ministry gathering on Wednesday. The topic was one of my favorites: allowing God to use you to change the world.
I shared this story with them:
When I was in 7th grade, I was a total dork. I got beat up all the time, made fun of, cut from the basketball team. I was a mess. In the midst of the worst year of my life, my youth pastor, Jon Sullivan said to me “I see something great in you. I’d love for you to preach the sermon for Youth Sunday.” It was the first time anyone had said anything like that to me. I still remember writing out that sermon on 5 x 7 index cards. The title was How to Walk on Water. I told all the old people that they didn’t have faith and that if they wanted to follow Jesus they had to get out of the boat.
That was 24 years ago, and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I shared with the students a verse that has come to mean a lot to me; Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
This verse reminds me of three things that maybe someone reading needs to hear today:
- You have a gift. You are God’s workmanship. You are his masterpiece. You have been gifts and talents and passions that He has placed in you. Your value isn’t determined by your social status, your marital status, your race, your income, the size of your home or the mistakes of your past. You have value because you are God’s work of art.
- God has a plan. There are things that God has been planning for you to do before the creation of the world. God has given you gifts and talents and passions because He has something specifically in mind for you to do with your one and only life. Don’t stop pursuing that. Don’t stop dreaming about that…God hasn’t. He has already planned those things in advance for you.
- You have a role. God has given you gifts, and God has dreamed up a plan so that you can fulfill the role you have been designed for. Your role isn’t my role. My role isn’t your role. But we need one another to become the community of faith that God longs for us to be. Embrace your role. Step into your role. There are no cuts. Everyone who tries out gets a part. Everyone who goes out for the team makes it. You have a role.
I don’t know where today finds you, but I hope you take these three things to heart. You have one shot at this life. God has given you a gift, He has a plan and you have a role.
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