Skinning The Goat
July 11, 2008
When The Little Things Matter
I wonder who skinned the goats for the curtains for the tabernacle? I mean, it hardly seems like the job someone would enthusiastically volunteer for. Maybe it would be a general, “Hey, who wants to build a place where we meet God? Steve, you design the gold implements, Phil, can you do all the ornate woodwork, um, Bob, see all those dead goats over there…” It seems to me that most of us have grandiose ideas as to how God should use us in the building of His Kingdom. This weekend, away speaking, I met two goat skinners. To talk to them, you would have assumed that they had done the ornate craft work.
“Todd” started to drive a bus for camp every weekend for the summer, 17 years ago. That first year he drove, was also the year he met Jesus Christ. He explained that his friends ask how he could do such a thing with gas prices so high. His response,”If one kid who rode my bus gives his life to Jesus, that’s all the reward I need.” But, that’s not the only reward he will get…
“Jim” was a big machinery excavator, who heard the call of God to serve in anyway he could. He assumed he would be digging holes and building things. Instead, he directs a kitchen staff who prepare six hundred meals everyday. To the thousands of kids he has fed over these many years, he is “Papa Jim.”
It’s funny how we think one task serving an omnipotent God is more important than another. Let’s face it, a God who creates the earth in six days doesn’t need someone to drive bus anymore than He needs someone to bake cookies. But, he uses both! And both people are credited with righteousness for serving Him.
It makes me wonder how many people avoid skinning goats because they are waiting to be called to do the architectural design? Paul said in his first gospel to the Corinthians, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of is.” (12:27 NIV) I consider myself to be the head of my body, and I have never thought to give special accolade to my feet for carrying me or my eyelashes for protecting my eyeballs. They just obey my mind, and we all do a million things a day for the same body.
If you would like to consider a life of giving your obedience to Christ, Crossroads Farm is always looking for someone like you. We can’t promise that you will raise arches, but we know two people who would say driving a bus and fixing meals is more fulfilling that anything else in the world. If you asked them to go back to what they were doing before they started skinning goats…they wouldn’t!
*side bar: CRF is currently praying for positions of Farm Facility, Assoc. Director of Development and Youth Ministry Program Staff. For more info., contact the CRF office…bring your own knives!
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