Empty Vessels
Check this out ...
"We bought a house FULL of JUNK...!! What did we get ourselves into?"
The internet is filled to overflowing with stories just like this one — people buying homes at auction or in foreclosure, only to have to deal with all the old furnishings and junk that were left behind.
A house filled with old junk and clutter is not fit for habitation. It would be of little value to us until it is emptied of its contents. We need an empty house in order to properly set up housekeeping and make a house a home.
The Lord has little use for people who are full of themselves, their past "junk," and old, worldly ways. He needs an emptied vessel so that He can come and productively make His home within us.
In his ministry, Jesus loved to use empty vessels: empty boats, empty nets, empty jars, and empty tombs!
Are you ready to empty yourself to be filled with HIS fulness?
"Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses [empties] himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work" (2 Timothy 2:20-21, ESV).
"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ... [who] emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5,7, NASV).
Potentially a Great Plumber
Robert K. Greenleaf has been acclaimed by this generation of grateful students and mentors as the “grandfather of servant leadership,” a pioneer, prophet, pathfinder, teacher, and a practitioner of its precepts. He not only coined the phrases (1970: “servant leadership” and “the servant as leader”), but over decades forged ahead into a wilderness of institutions and organizations with principles and disciplines of inestimable impact on the whole practice of leadership.
From “Robert K. Greenleaf: Pioneer on His Journey” by Lloyd Elder, Th.D
His son, Newcomb Greenleaf, spoke of his father's calling saying :
My father wrote his own epitaph: “potentially a good plumber, ruined by a sophisticated education.” We don’t know how seriously he intended this, but after mulling it over we decided to go ahead and put it on his headstone (from Reflections on Leadership, p. 13).
Great leaders are content to serve where they are called. "Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. Were you a plumber when you were called? Don't let it trouble you ..." (1 Corinthians 7:20-12).
God can, and WILL use a plumber as readily as a general or a president!
Scribbled Prayers
One of the great privileges of serving as a deacon is the opportunity to be one of the first to pray over needs shared at the beginning of the worship service. Our congregation is invited to fill out prayer request cards which are available in each pew. They simply say, "Let us pray with you," leaving a blank space, with the prompt, "My request is ..."
A particular prayer request stood out to me. It was the scribblings of a young child filling out the blank prayer card as he sat in the pew. Just a squiggly line — up, down, and back and forth on the card.
I love the heart of a child eager to participate and share their scribbles for prayer. “Let the little children come to me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Luke 18:16, NIV).
It also reminded me that this is how a lot of my prayers must sound before the sovereign God. My praying must often be not much more than scribbles of unintelligible ideas and whinings when presented to Him. But I am glad that he knows them better than I do.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26, ESV).