"Stuck in Park?"

“Stuck in Park?”

 

I spent my first year in South Carolina as a chaplain trainee in a local hospital. One day while making my rounds I encountered a colleague who was seated at a unit’s desk documenting completed visits. He was still pastoring an area church and as we talked he expressed frustration at the congregation’s lack of willingness to step out by faith into ministry (the attitude was, “We’ll sit here and wait for God to lead us.”). I found myself telling him, “You can’t steer a car that’s stuck in park.” He looked at me, didn’t say a word, opened his notebook, grabbed a pen, and wrote it down. He later shared this with his people with apparently little or no effect as he resigned from his church about a year later.

As I’ve sought God’s leading during my lifetime I have to admit (to my shame) that I’ve sometimes expected God to tell me what I was to do while waiting around and contributing next to nothing to His work. But He rebuked me through His Word with accounts of how He called people to serve Him. I then realized that I couldn’t think of anyone who wasn’t already busy before being summoned to service. Moses was caring for his father-in-law’s sheep when God appeared to him in the burning bush (Exodus 3); Elisha was plowing a field when he was appointed as Elijah’s successor (1 Kings 19); Saul was persecuting Jesus’ followers when he met Him on the Damascus Road (Acts 9). A few years later Paul (Saul’s new name) tried to go to several places before God opened the door to Macedonia (Acts 16:6-10). None of these great heroes of faith was stuck in park—can we afford to be?

Pastor Rick Warren has observed that God usually calls us according to our S.H.A.P.E., an acronym for Spiritual gifting, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. And the best way to discover what He wants from us is to start doing something growing out of these criteria—in other words, get out of Park and into Drive. Then we’re on the highway to productivity and blessing.

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s start our engines, shift out of Park, and “…move on.” (Exodus 14:15).

Blessings!

Jim McMillan