Every oyster can make a pearl. What is required is an irritant around which the oyster can secrete a substance called "nacre." With the passage of years a lustrous valuable pearl grows. Without an irritant, the oyster would never produce a pearl. There is a lesson in there somewhere for us. For instance, I am always complaining about those irritants in my life whose disappearance would allow me to really become a super-spiritual person.
Why, if I had economic freedom, I could become a world-wide traveling ambassador for Christ. Or, if I didn't have to work to support my family, I could devote my life to be a missionary in the heart of Africa. Those irritants of being poor, or having to work for a living, sure get in the way of being super-spiritual, don't they?
I remember reading about Fanny Crosby once. Here she was; blind, and writing all of those songs, and memorizing the first five books of the Bible. Now, if she could just have been able to see, she might have been a really spiritual person, and she could have just read the Bible instead of memorizing it.
And, then there was George Mueller. Why, if he had been rich, then he wouldn't have had to spend so much time praying for the supply of food for the orphanage he ran. He would have just had some staff person go buy the food, and then spent his time seeking God's will for his life.
There have been all kinds of people with disabilities who might have been great spiritual warriors if their hands were untwisted, or their eyes could see, or their crutches or wheelchairs tossed away. But, they just had to go about God's business - day after day after day - dragging those "irritants" along with them.
Some church folks remind me of these men and women. Every good Christian worker I know has some "irritant" in his life. Other people seem to have the ability or talent or time or income but they are always gone somewhere - no doubt out seeking God's will for their lives, trying to find out how to help God build a better world. My, my, my - it seems like so many of them are such busy people going here and there all the time.
In the meantime of course, well those ministry jobs just have to get done, so pastors go out and get some folks with all those irritants; you know, a lame one here, a blind one there, a poor one there, and one that already is doing someone else's job too. Well, you know how it is. Strange as it may seem, by the time we get all of this crew together the job just gets done anyway. And, as the years pass, all of these people seem to grow into precious pearls while they are busy going about the Master's business.
I guess pearls and irritants kind of go together.
Well, I sure hope all of those other folks find whatever it is that they are looking for out there. So many of them seem to be like fine looking race horses that never really get out of the stable and into a race. They look like they could run a great race if they ever got over to the race track. They really do look like real good race horses, honest - but no one has ever seen them on the race track. It would be a shame for those folks to be searching all this time for God's will while it was right in front of their noses all the time.
Why, if I had economic freedom, I could become a world-wide traveling ambassador for Christ. Or, if I didn't have to work to support my family, I could devote my life to be a missionary in the heart of Africa. Those irritants of being poor, or having to work for a living, sure get in the way of being super-spiritual, don't they?
I remember reading about Fanny Crosby once. Here she was; blind, and writing all of those songs, and memorizing the first five books of the Bible. Now, if she could just have been able to see, she might have been a really spiritual person, and she could have just read the Bible instead of memorizing it.
And, then there was George Mueller. Why, if he had been rich, then he wouldn't have had to spend so much time praying for the supply of food for the orphanage he ran. He would have just had some staff person go buy the food, and then spent his time seeking God's will for his life.
There have been all kinds of people with disabilities who might have been great spiritual warriors if their hands were untwisted, or their eyes could see, or their crutches or wheelchairs tossed away. But, they just had to go about God's business - day after day after day - dragging those "irritants" along with them.
Some church folks remind me of these men and women. Every good Christian worker I know has some "irritant" in his life. Other people seem to have the ability or talent or time or income but they are always gone somewhere - no doubt out seeking God's will for their lives, trying to find out how to help God build a better world. My, my, my - it seems like so many of them are such busy people going here and there all the time.
In the meantime of course, well those ministry jobs just have to get done, so pastors go out and get some folks with all those irritants; you know, a lame one here, a blind one there, a poor one there, and one that already is doing someone else's job too. Well, you know how it is. Strange as it may seem, by the time we get all of this crew together the job just gets done anyway. And, as the years pass, all of these people seem to grow into precious pearls while they are busy going about the Master's business.
I guess pearls and irritants kind of go together.
Well, I sure hope all of those other folks find whatever it is that they are looking for out there. So many of them seem to be like fine looking race horses that never really get out of the stable and into a race. They look like they could run a great race if they ever got over to the race track. They really do look like real good race horses, honest - but no one has ever seen them on the race track. It would be a shame for those folks to be searching all this time for God's will while it was right in front of their noses all the time.
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