Stepping Out In Faith Toward Your Life's Callingનમૂનો

As Unto the Lord

Growing up on a farm in South Georgia, I thought nothing out of the ordinary to always have a table full of people.  Our family alone with six children filled up the table, but there was always room for more.

The church my family attended was right down the road from a U.S. Air Force Base which always brought new faces through the doors.  There are dozens of military families who thought they were just visiting a small church in South Georgia, who would end up sitting at my momma’s table for a feast they would never forget.

My parents didn’t just stop at having people over for meals.  They have had numerous people live with them until they could get on their feet.  I think the word about the generosity of my parents spread because there seemed to always be someone needing their assistance.  

I can remember as a young teen being a little frustrated about always having to share a meal and accommodate new faces. I pointed out to my mom that some of these people were not even appreciative of what was being done for them. “Momma, they didn’t even say thank you.” My mom responded, “That’s okay, God can deal with them on that.  I’m just responsible for my actions.”  Oh, what wisdom my mom possessed.

Fast forward 30 years…..I was working for an organization and had to supervise a group of young people.  One of them was constantly sleeping at the office, looked disheveled and was withdrawn. I talked to my husband about this young man and we began to pray for him.

I felt strongly that the Lord wanted me to reach out to him.  I wanted to make sure I was using wisdom and not acting too quickly so I asked my husband what he thought.  We both agreed that I should give this employee a call and invite him to eat lunch with us.

I found out that he was living in a homeless shelter in our community. Again, I spoke with my husband and we both agreed that he could stay in our home until he could work out getting a low budget apartment.  We helped him find an apartment and along with our friends, we furnished it for him. All seemed to be a success until I started getting more reports from his coworkers that he continued to slack off and sleep during the workday.  When I confronted him and told him that I had documented his behavior, he got extremely angry with me and started doing and saying things that would discredit me.  

This situation was humiliating.  Some of his co-workers came to me and said, “Mrs. Cathy, we bet you learned your lesson and will never help anyone like him again.”  At first, I was too embarrassed and heart-broken to respond.  The words my mom had spoken to me years ago started coming back to my remembrance.  I gentle responded to these young adults, “I am responsible to obey what God tells me to do. How someone reacts is between them and God.”

Learning to do things as unto the Lord and not unto man is one of the greatest things my parents demonstrated to me. In our work with the Barrow Whalers, I knew that there was a chance it would fail and I would be embarrassed, but when I put my focus on pleasing God more than man, God showed me that He could do far greater than I could even imagine.

Questions to ask yourself:

Have you ever done something that you knew God wanted you to do, but it didn’t look successful?  If so, do you believe God was pleased with your obedience?

Have you ever not done something that you were called to do because you were worried about what others would say?