Guest Blogger- Mickey Jones

“A Body–Not a Business / An Organism–Not an Organization”

One of the most beautiful pictures of the church is found in Romans 12: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same
function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We each have different gifts according to the grace given us.”

As I reflect upon our readings to date I am reminded of times in my life where I have cried out to the Lord to do a “great” work so that my life would have significance in His eyes and have a “visible” Kingdom impact. How many times have you heard, or even stated yourself, “We long to be a part of a ‘God-Sized’ task so that He can be glorified!” I know that I have. There is certainly nothing wrong with a desire for God to move in a powerful way, but if we hyper-focus on that one big thing out there somewhere we miss out on the molding, shaping, character-building, daily journey with Him. It has been said that the journey is just as important, if not more so, than the final destination. I have found that there is much truth in that statement.

The fact is, we never truly “arrive” in this life and may never see the fruits of our labor until we meet Him face to face. Should this discourage us? No, on the contrary. It should energize and encourage us to know that God’s desire is to include is in the work He is about to accomplish His purposes even if that means we may not be around to see the results. It’s bigger than us–a ‘God-Sized’ task!!

When Betty Gail and I stepped out in faith and obedience to follow the Lord’s desire to move us into full-time ministry almost three years ago (3 years–are you kidding me?!) we could relate with Abram when God instructed him in Genesis 12, “Go...to the land that I will show you.” We didn’t know what we were doing, but God did. We didn’t know where we were going or how to get there, but God did. In fact, Compass was nowhere on our radar at that time, but it was certainly on His heart. Six other couples meeting in our living room in July of 2009 were drawn together in like-mind and spirit sharing our same concerns of inadequacy and fear of the unknown, but ALL acknowledged that God was definitely up to something; ALL acknowledged that this was bigger than us–truly a ‘God-Sized’ task!!

So have we arrived? The business world may look at the results and say, “134% growth over a 2-year period–phenomenal”; but a body or organism would say, “You are only 2!!” Abram (Abraham) did not see the ultimate fulfillment of the promise given, but he understood that this was bigger than him. Let’s join Abraham and respond emphatically, “Yes, I will follow You, Lord, even though I don’t know what I am doing, where I am going, or how to get there...but I know that You do!!”

My prayer is that we continue to enjoy the journey as invited guests of the One guiding our steps whether we are 2 or 102, always acknowledging that we never arrive and that the task is always bigger than us...