Think About it -- Not Everyone Can be a Gravedigger

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Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. [i] But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. [ii]

When I was young, I pursued selfish desires. I didn’t give much thought to my place in the body. It really wasn’t until my children were born that I considered the responsibility to pursue the life and lifestyle God had intended for me.

Then, finding that rhythm was a dynamic and unfolding process. What was right for me in my early 20’s, changed before I was 30. Then it changed again in my 40’s. God had written my story, but it took me some years to find it and, it was a developing story when I did find it. 

Psalm 139:16 tells me, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” When we find our calling in life, we tap into our story that was written when we were in the womb. Everyone’s story is a little different than others.

Floyd was a friend of mine, in his 60’s when I was in my 20’s. He was a gravedigger in our rural community. Floyd was who area funeral homes called to schedule a grave to be dug.

In his early days they were all dug by hand. It would take him most of a day to dig a single grave. By the time I got to know him, he was using a backhoe.

I asked him one day, “how’s business Floyd?” He responded it was slow but there were some good prospects around the county.

 

Think About it

We can’t all be gravediggers. I’ve never asked a young person what they wanted to be when they grew up and heard, “I want to be a gravedigger.” But somebody must do it. 

Just because Floyd was a gravedigger, he didn’t expect me or anyone else to follow his model, but he was comfortable in his role in life. 

Just because God called you to be a protector, don’t project that on your pastor or others who are not wired the way you are. It’s your calling, keep it in that perspective.


[i] 1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV)

[ii] 1 Corinthians 12:18 (NIV)

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