Prescribed By God To Make A Difference

Prescribed by God to Make a Difference

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:17

How often do we minister only to those who are like us or have their acts together? I would suggest we do it a lot of the time—it’s only natural since it’s a more comfortable setting. We have an idea how to approach someone who is at least somewhat like us. But those are not the only lives where God call us to make a difference.

As a longtime fisherman, I appreciate the numerous fishing metaphors that Jesus used to make many of His points. I heard it said that Jesus asks us to bring the fish into the boat, not to worry about having to have them cleaned up first and then hauled aboard.

When I was coaching, there were a couple of times each year when that became more apparent to me and caused me to struggle with how to handle a particular situation and minister to a particular player. I would have to decide, despite the athlete’s ability to play the game, whether that person’s shortcomings in character or other things that needed to be cleaned up in his life were too great or too much of a distraction for our team to keep them.

At the end of every season, our coaching staff conducted overall evaluations. I had to determine whether I felt I could still help certain players with what was going on in their lives or not. And then as the season began and we went through the rigors of training camp, there were both veterans and newcomers whose immediate futures and livelihoods were in my hands, which for me was no small burden and responsibility.

Every now and then I’d have a coach or player who may not have had a perfect past, and people would ask me if I really wanted them on the staff or the roster, or even if I wanted to be associated with them at all. How else will we show the world that we’re different and impact those who may need it? Jesus wants us actively ministering to people who need to be ministered to, who need to know the Source of that difference in our lives. Who need Jesus’ healing words and grace.

Uncommon Key > Is the way you are living your life making a difference in someone else’s? Someone you wouldn’t readily gravitate to? There may be bigger things that Christ calls you to than what seems obvious.