Romans 12:3-8 :: Part or Prominence?

Romans 12:3-8 (The Message and TNIV)

"The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him." v3b

I love this passage of Scripture.  I love this entire chapter of Romans, but these verses are particularly important to me.  They are the verses that God used to help me find my place in His ministry, they are the verses that continue to sustain me in that ministry and they are verses that push me to encourage you to be who God has called you to be.  For a long time, I did not like the part I was called to play in this story.  I felt like my part was a pinky finger when the index finger got all the attention.  I wanted to travel and speak at camps and be the guy people wanted to come and do their retreats.  It took me a long time to realize that I might be better in relationships and that my place in His ministry was going to be much less in the spotlight.  When I began to understand this, I began to sense a deeper fulfillment in the part I was to play.

This is not to say that I am always good at it though.  I am being refined in many ways to play my role.  I don't like to be pigeon-holed either.  I still like to try different things.  The above verse has to stay at the front of all I do or attempt to do though.  The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.  Period.  If I want to know who I am and how important I am, I must not look at what I do, but what God is and what he does for us.  This understanding produces a humility that I cannot conjure up on my own.  It keeps my pride in check and consistently gives me something to celebrate and embrace.  God is always good and always doing something around me, even when I am sloughing off.

Have you found that "place" that only you can fulfill in the body of Christ?  When you are thinking about this "place" are you envisioning yourself doing it in a church or with your table group?  Are you envisioning a "ministry" where you can be or are you thinking bigger than that?  What would it mean to think bigger?