Is It Ministry

 

Good morning !!  I’m happy it’s Thursday, because that means Friday is just ahead.

 Coming in to work this morning, I wondered what I needed to do today to finish up the week.  You see, I don’t work at the office on Fridays, and today will be the last work day of this week.  I knew I needed to write this Thursday Thought.  And I also had an email to send to a member.  But other than that, I had nothing really on my plate.  Or so I thought.

 Arriving in the parking lot and coming to the entrance door, I first looked into the Paxton’s blessing box we have near the entrance.  It had a few items in it that no one had taken, and no one was going to take because those items were used and not appropriate for a blessing box.  I removed them and carried them toward the entrance.

 As I did that, I noticed one of our disabled members already here, waiting to be let into the building.  No one else was here yet, and she has the public transportation van bring her to Thursday morning Bible study.  Sometimes the van has to bring her early due to scheduling issues.  That was the case this morning.  So, before I got to my office, I came into the building, threw away the items I took out of the blessing box, opened the door, and helped her into the building and back to where the class was going to be held.

 While I was in the Bible study area, Doug, the teacher of the class was there setting up a virtual meeting for the class.  He told me he couldn’t get Internet access.  I remembered then that the evening before, in that same area, I couldn’t get access for the Wednesday evening class and I had to punt by using a DVD for the lesson instead of YouTube.  We had Internet in other parts of the building, so I presumed that the switch and associated gear in the tech closet was working.  I then guessed that the WAP, the wireless access point that serves that part of the building was somehow not working right.

 I used an app on my phone to see that there was indeed a signal from the access point…but no Internet on the signal.  My limited I/T experience only gave me the option of rebooting the device.  So I went to the janitor closet, got out a ladder and found the access point in the ceiling.  I unplugged it, waited ten seconds, and plugged it back in, hoping and praying that would fix it.  After about a minute of rebooting, the device indeed came back on with Internet capability.  I checked with Doug to be sure he had Internet, then reinstalled the ceiling tile and put the ladder away.

 While in the classroom, someone mentioned that the clock which was there wasn’t working.  All it needed was a battery, so I went to my office, found a double A battery in my junk drawer and installed it into the clock.  That made it work and I rehung it on the wall of the classroom.

 Forty five minutes after I arrived, I was finally able to sit in my office chair and begin my “official” day.

 I tell you all of that to tell you this.  What happened this morning is not an unusual thing for me.  Many times I find myself dealing with something totally unexpected…something which immediately takes priority over whatever else I may have to do.  Something which does not appear in any way to be “ministry.”  And you deal with similar situations in your daily life and living too.  You may have your day planned when a phone call, a text, someone at your office door, or some other notification makes you immediately re prioritize your day.  Often, those things which force that reprioritization apparently have nothing or very little to do with your work or daily responsibilities.  Nevertheless, you take them on anyway.

 In my case, was what I did for the first forty five minutes today “ministry?”  Was it part of my work as a minister and shepherd at RiverWalk?  Or not?  Or does it matter?  What I did needed to be done, whether it could be placed into the “ministry” category or not.  People were in immediate need.  I could help fill that need.  Had I refused, needs would have gone unmet that I could have alleviated.  That wouldn’t be “ministry.”  That would be selfishness and an uncaring, unloving attitude.

 Sometimes we have to step back and see the bigger picture of our role in God’s kingdom.  We can’t, of course, see the entire thing, but we can catch glimpses of God at work in and through us as we go about our day.  And we can by faith understand that we may well be part of a much greater work in the lives of others than we ourselves can comprehend.  So we leave it to the Master Planner to order our lives.  And we continue to understand that we are, as the great Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Ephesian church, “God’s masterpiece, who has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

 Blessings.