I’ve spent most of my adult, working life, wearing a hard hat, glove and steel toe capped boots. Because I love my head and my toes and wish to keep them the way they should be. I banged my head, pretty badly, early on – because I thought hard hats were stupid and annoying and uncomfortable.
I had a very bad head for a while after that encounter! And I also discovered that standing up, underneath the main boom of a lorry mounted crane, is never sensible! I took quite a lot of insults after that, because I was never seen working on my truck without a hard hat. Lifting large, heavy, objects was – for me at least – an obvious clue that boots with steel toe caps was a must…that one I got immediately!
With a hard hat I was fit for purpose.
Without it, I was an accident waiting to happen!
I still think hard hats are annoying and uncomfortable, but I accept that discomfort because I like my head! The name calling I relentlessly received was easily ignored, because I don’t like inflicting headaches upon myself!
Fit for purpose, doesn’t automatically equate to comfortable and easy, though, and in our Christian walk, we need to be fit for purpose too! This requires, from us, a willing heart to serve God (and a willingness to live the exciting life that follows as we let Him lead us on the paths He knows are best for us to walk on!).
If we’re fit for purpose for a lifetime serving God, we’ll be far more interested in our spiritual exercise than our physical exercise (1 Timothy 4 v8), and far more concerned with what God thinks of our actions, than those around us.
I know, personally, what it is to face mockery and ridicule from people who ‘should’ be loving and kind towards you. I’ve lived through those hurtful actions more times than I care to count. But I’ve also, always, strived to put God first, and that means putting other things second, and those things that we have to put second usually have names and don’t like ‘not being’ the most important things on our to do lists.
But if we desire to truly serve God, then being fit for purpose means pretty frequently upsetting people who have a different plan for our lives than us or God. We do need wise counsel – absolutely - and this isn’t licence to do what we want, or as an excuse to hurt people around us. It is, however, a motivation for who comes first in our lives.
Just like my bike, let’s get advice from those who know more, and as Christians we should be expecting older men and women in our church families to teach us what they have learned through their walks with Christ.
But, let’s also ensure our relationship with Jesus is not just our highest priority, but the priority of priorities, such that nothing even comes on to the same to do list as our relationship with Jesus.
When we do that, everything else will happily, and easily, fall into place.
When we put the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, everything else makes sense!
Andy B
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