Audience of One

Maybe the hardest thing I have to face in ministry is the concept of the “audience of One”. Knowing that I minister for One Person only is so difficult because I cannot see Him nor can I feel His arm around me. So quickly distracted I turn to the accolades of others to gauge the success or failure of a ministry or even a night in ministry. When the thanks and the atta-boys don’t come I get depressed. Does anyone notice me? Does anyone give a rip about what I am doing here? Am I making a difference? Should I just go away?

One of my former pastors used to say that if God ever called him home he would be missed about as much as a finger is missed when it is withdrawn from a glass of water. The water that the finger displaces quickly fills in the “hole” that was made when it occupied that space. I laughed and nodded my head knowing what he said was true. But I do not live that reality out as much as I should – probably because it humbles me so deeply and I do not want to think of myself as being that lowly.

The Lord has given me the ministries that He wants me to be involved in. He prepared the good works in advance of my salvation even so that I may walk in them. Who am I to question where He has led and what He may withdraw? That anyone notices ought not to matter to me because of Him, who notices the fallen sparrow, is keeping watch.

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