When I was attending Cincinnati Bible College, I had something of a parking incident in front of the dormitory in which I was living. The whole campus was on one big hill and as I was trying to maneuver around several other cars in reverse, attempting to parallel park, my front tire caught the rather tall and sharp concrete berm and because of the grade of the hill combined with my angle and velocity; I actually hopped the front of my car over the ledge and left my front-wheel-drive car straddling that concrete obstacle so that neither of my two front tires was on the ground. And there I sat balanced without any chance of driving out of my predicament. I got out of my car and looking at the situation, I realized I had no hope of fixing this on my own. So I ran into the lobby of our dorms and said “anyone want to help me lift a car?” Soon 20 or so guys surrounded my car and what no one-of-us could do individually, we found that all of us could do easily if we only did our part. We picked up the car and carried it the few feet necessary to set it right. I must say, picking up a car felt pretty cool!
In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he wrote the following describing our responsibility and requirements: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” The God of this universe knows how much you can lift and carry and has put you in a position in space-time history where your strength can be put to use. This is not hyperbole; if you will only find your place and put your back into it, you’ll find that you are part of moving not just a car, but an entire planet with all of its nations and peoples. This week we’re going to attempt to break down what lifting your part of the world looks like. Don’t be intimidated… you were made for this.
