On The Shelf – By: Judi Allen

         My husband and I served for nine years in Belgium in a church-planting and discipleship ministry.  Together, we worked many hours learning French, helping with the teens and children, conducting summer kids clubs, hosting home meetings, making contacts with neighbors, discipling college students, preparing for Sunday services, helping implement a city-wide evangelistic outreach, and many more ministries.  The key word in all of that was “together.”

          In 1991, we transitioned back stateside and began ministry with Northwest Independent Church Extension.  For a number of years, Bob was the Director of Ethnic Ministries and the Financial Secretary for NICE.  Almost immediately I began to feel left behind in ministry.  We had always done everything together, but suddenly Bob was moving on into new ministry directions.  What was I doing?  Staying home with the kids!  I felt like I had been put on the shelf from ministry.  I chafed and wrestled against it!

          God taught me some valuable lessons during that time of frustration and discontent.  The lessons weren’t new, but lessons I needed to learn.  When we have been involved in what we consider “great things for God,” our pride makes it difficult to be involved in small things for God.  Did I really have the gall to feel that God should only use me for “important” ministry?  Pride gives us a rather exalted view of how important we are to the plan of God.

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          If we believe God is truly sovereign, then He has the right to use us as He sees fit.  God chooses where and how I will be used for His glory.  If I approach my seemingly insignificant situation, acknowledging that God has put me here, it is then significant.  Though we may not be accomplishing our goals, God is still accomplishing His plan.

          Spending time, thought, and energy dwelling on what you want to be robs you of joy and effectiveness in what really is.  God had placed me in a ministry that was different from the previous one.  But it was still ministry; and God desired for me to be effective in it.  I looked around and found outlets for ministry that brought great joy and a sense of being useful for God.  It is an honor to be chosen for service, no matter what the service may entail.

Judi Allen – NW Independent Church Extension – Hobart, WA

(Adapted from Voice magazine, September/October 2011.)