Billy Graham is one of the top 10 most important people of the 20th century. He had a unique role and accomplished what he set out to do. And he has many copycats.
My seminary professor told us to listen to the evangelists trying to be another Billy. They even faked his southern accent. Maybe that is good training but it can’t substitute for what God has called you to be. God is not looking for carbon copies of anyone or anything, a fact we can verify in our un-copy-able DNA.
Young girls want to be movie starts or famous singers, swathed in furs and diamonds. But the story of fame is a difficult burden. Boys want to be high paid sports stars with a pricey car and a gaggle of groupy-girls.
The “beautiful” people are surrounded by insincere hangers-on hoping to bask in their fame. Money buys opportunity but many famous people are never told the awful truth about their bad behavior or attitude. Just because you have a lot of money does not mean you should be buying cocaine. And erelong you are trapped, thinking the money that bought you in can also buy you out. It won’t!
The happiest people are those who know who they are and what they are supposed to be doing. Older people usually get to this point and their calm and self-confidence helps their grandchildren.
Everyone call a plan for his/her life.
Jeremiah 29:11 I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.
Everyone has gifts and a calling.
Romans 11:29 (The Message) God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.
Your gifts match your calling. And God will train you for the work. Maybe you thought all those music lessons would send you to an early grave, but lo and behold, hours of concentration on another language (reading music is a language unto itself) now you need that discipline even though you never touched the piano after age 15. That job you had working for an idiot and being paid next to nothing taught you patience and to keep your mouth shut, a skill you find you need very badly now. All those camping trips with Dad, hating the flies and mosquitoes and falling in the lake as a child have made your work now in forest management easier and actually, fun.
At one time children thought religious work always meant the church. Today moderns know that God uses his people in every corner of the world and in every profession and job. Coming to the realization that you are in the center of God’s will as a secular worker opens up a brand new view of yourself. Happy people are those who are fulfilled in their own call, not in someone else’s.
God said this: I am the Lord. I change not. (Malachi 3:6)
What this means is that you change in order to come into His presence. If you are uncomfortable in your own skin, talk to him.
One Response
Like pretending to be an adult when you’re still a child or pretending to be female when biology also says that you were born male?