“Hello, this is God. Who’s this?”
One year over the Christmas holidays we rented a couple of movies. One movie we rented was Multiplicity. It is one of those movies where half way through you think, “hey, this is my life!”
It’s about the typical American family surviving life.
The husband was a contractor and WAY TOO BUSY! He had a couple of partners to keep satisfied, was doing too many jobs, going every direction, and of course failing to meet the needs of his wife and kids. He didn’t even think about having any time to relax!
The wife, who had given up her job to have their children, was looking to go back to work now that the kids were both old enough for school. She wanted to pick up her career again. This would require more involvement from her husband with the kids and family. More pressure on the husband, who wasn’t real supportive.
Does this sound like your life?
This poor guy was about to explode from the competing pressures. But then he was given the opportunity for what many of us perhaps have said more than once in our lives—“all I need is another me. I wish there were two of me.” (Maybe we said it in anger, “What do you think—that there are two of me!?!”)
They cloned him. Presto. They made two of him: one for work and the other for the rest of his life—the wife, the kids, and even a little time to relax. Golf. But when his wife goes back to work he soon finds that he his leisure is being interfered with by his responsibilities for his kids, which he finds are more than a full time job. They cloned him again. Presto. They made three of him: one for work, one for the house and kids, and one for a little golf. And on the movie goes; everything is suppose to work out smoothly. Many, many, many clones of the one guy so that he can get everything he wants to do in life done.
The concept of getting many things done through one flows through an extended passage in Ephesians 4. Even though there are many tasks looming before you; even though you see needs everywhere; even though there are infinite opportunities to serve God, there is just one of you. But because there are also many, many, many of us who make up the body of a local church, we can accomplish a great deal—certainly more than if there were only one or even a few of us.
This extended passage applies the theological truths found in the first three chapters of Ephesians. It begins addressing a frequently misunderstood or even unknown concept—utilizing your spiritual gifts. This book first examines spiritual gifts, what they are and how to use them. It will help us at the gut, core, and earthy level of life—giving meaning to the day in and day out. this is life in the real world, and living it well before God.
But first, a challenging question:
