The Foolish Things

By Vickie G. Paver

Today I was thinking about how I have a lot of ideas for stories and devotionals that I want to write about! The problem comes in setting them down on paper. My thought processes get all messed up. I struggle, get frustrated and have felt like pulling my hair out when trying to get the words from my brain to paper. So, why do I do it! Why not just give up and forget the grief? The “why” is because I feel compelled to do it! Let me explain with a story.

“A little girl goes to her father and gives him a story that she has written for her brother. When the father looks at the story, he sees that she has struggled. Crayon cross outs filled the paper as she wrote and rewrote the story. He also saw that she still had many mistakes that had not been corrected. But the father saw beyond the mistakes and the lack of ability of the little girl because he saw a willingness to do a nice thing. The father said, ‘this is a beautiful story and I think that it would encourage your brother, Bob, so let him read it.’ The little girl was excited to think that Bob might be encouraged. So she took the story to Bob.

After Bob read the story, he thanked his sister for helping him understand through the story that he could do a lot of things, even though he is in a wheel chair. The little girl was pleased because she had helped her brother Bob.“ The little girl did not have the writing skills that others have, but she had “availability.” And each time she wrote a story for Bob he was encouraged. The father watched the little girl grow into a young woman who reached out to others with her ‘availability.’ The father was pleased.

So it is in my life. I feel compelled to write no matter how much I struggle to write. I feel humbled to know that God the Father somehow uses my writing to reach out to the Bob’s or Sandy’s in this life. It is something that is so hard for me to grasp! Yet, He (God) does it!

I said all of that to say this, no matter how inadequate you feel in your “abilities” to serve the Lord, whether it is through music, writing, teaching or speaking to someone about Christ remember this - ‘God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.’ What some people look at as pure foolishness, God uses to minister. So, if you feel deficient in your abilities, remember that God uses our ‘availability’ more than our ‘abilities.’ I know some extremely talented and intelligent writers and musicians who have buried their talents and they see no fruit from them. When God plants a strong desire to serve Him, He will use whatever he sees fit! The scriptures below really explain it all. So be available for the ministry that God has for you, no matter how foolish it may seem.

I Corinthians 1: 25-30; 25 “the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him."

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