August 26, 2024 Where is Your Special Place?
Where is Your Special Place?*
As Back to Church and School Fall Activities/Studies get underway, this felt like a good week to consider where God is especially calling each of us to grow and activate our special gifts, talents, and resources to reflect the love of Christ and advance His kingdom here on earth. I’m kicking off with a devotional written (and published with permission) by Susan Anderson, who has served as the Director of Lay Servant Ministries for the North Texas Conference these past 4 years. You will be blessed by her story as I was.
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit,
5 and there are varieties of services but the same Lord,
6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Corinthians 12:4-7, NRSVUE
I have always been fascinated by jigsaw puzzles. My kindergarten classroom was full of puzzles – wooden puzzles, floor puzzles, cereal box puzzles. It was great fun to watch the children as they turned pieces over and around, trying to find a fit. Often a child would try to pound a piece into place. That never worked because each piece has its own special place.
Isn’t that just like us as members of the Body of Christ? We all have our own special place. We cannot be ‘pounded’ into a place where we don’t fit, nor can we ‘pound’ someone else into a place where he or she doesn’t fit. Don’t you think God is pleased when he sees us carefully fitting the pieces into place?
In addition to finding our own place, one of our responsibilities to Christ is to help others find their places. I am reminded of a story of a pastor leading a group of children in a game of Giants, Wizards and Dwarfs, a large-scale version of Rock Paper Scissors. When the pastor yelled out, “Giants, Wizards or Dwarfs” and the groups wildly assembled, he felt a tug on his pant leg. A small child looked up at him and said, “Where do the mermaids stand?”
He answered, “There are no mermaids.”
The child said, “Yes there are. I am a mermaid.”
He thought for a moment and then said, “The mermaids stand right here by me, the King of the Sea.”
To me, this story illustrates the fact that the church needs to be open to all those who are different, who do not fit the norm, and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes of the church.
Reflect: Where is your special place to grow, find fellowship, and serve this year? Do you know what supernatural gifts God has given you? (We each have at least one! If needed, here is a link to a spiritual gifts inventory from Discipleship Ministries of the North Texas Conference.)
Pray: Gracious and loving God, help us to remember that the Body of Christ, like a jigsaw puzzle, is not complete without all its pieces coming together to make the beautiful picture that is the church universal. It is in Christ’s name that we pray. Amen.
Susan Anderson,
Director of Lay Servant Ministries, North Texas Conference
*With Susan’s permission to reprint, today’s Practice the Pause first appeared on April 12, 2024 as a Notes for a New Day devotional of the North Texas Conference, United Methodist Church.