Stepping into Your Role

Whether it’s recently quoted vows to a spouse, a first pregnancy, a new promotion at work, or feeling the drawing of God to accept more responsibility at church, few of us realize the weight that comes with responsibility. Sometimes that weight is accompanied by fear, doubt, or a slew of other thoughts and feelings (even, at times, to the point of paralysis).

In all transparency, I have found myself struggling in this very area and, if I’m honest, have been struggling with it longer than I feel any human should. However, I am reminded of the stories of David, Elisha, Joseph, Gideon, and Moses. David was just a boy tending to his father’s sheep and singing to the Lord with a harp when he had a flask of oil poured over his head and he was anointed king. I’m sure he was not wishing for someone to come and anoint him king in Saul’s place. Elisha was plowing a field when Elijah thrust his mantle upon his shoulders. Elisha didn’t wake up that morning thinking, “God’s going to make me Elijah’s right-hand man.” Joseph became the second most powerful ruler in the land of Egypt, but perhaps, even as he told his brothers and father of this God-given dream, he could not have envisioned having that much authority. Gideon was just trying to thresh some wheat so his family could eat, and Moses had fled his adopted Egyptian family after murdering an Egyptian.

In every one of these stories, men became leaders and stepped into roles that none of them would’ve wanted if they could have seen the end before the beginning or the outcome. Yet, marriage calls us to a role, just as parenting, ministry, or work promotion calls us to various roles. Sometimes the role is not one we would have wanted for ourselves, but it’s the one that’ll fit us like a glove. Much like disposable gloves, there is a process to getting them on and doing so without shredding them.

I recently experienced one of the most powerful altar services I’ve ever been in and, as I stood there wrestling with the thoughts of my heart, God said, “You can’t do it in your own might; you can’t do it in your own power; you can’t even do it in your own wisdom.” It was then that I was reminded of Zechariah 4:5; “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.”

*Originally published in my church's newsletter and then to Facebook Feb 14, 2020