As each one has received a special gift,
employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God…
so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ,
to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
I Peter 4:10 – 11
We’re just back from our annual adventure in the Idaho mountains. For one week each July, members of my husband’s extended family come from Korea, Iowa, South Dakota, Siberia, Georgia, and England to work, play and worship together. The gathering is a marvel of administration, engineering, and cooperation as relatives converge to further their common goal of improving the Family Camp facility so future generations will have a place to connect and pass on their rich heritage of faith.
Every year, family members willingly share their talents – from hanging sheet rock to playing with the babies, from preparing three meals a day for forty people to cleaning the bath house, from mudding walls to taking pictures for posterity, from picking huckleberries to leading morning devotions – to reach that common, long term goal.
Every year, family members look beyond denominational lines and worship styles to gratefully and humbly praise God for the grace of His presence and for calling so many of us into relationship with Him, to His glory through Christ.
This year, as the camp construction projects moved ahead, my mind hopped from Idaho to Iowa. I thought about the adventure our church family is embarking upon this year. As we move from two-dimensional blueprints to a three-dimensional building, we’ll have to cooperate, share our talents, and unite around the common goal of creating a facility able to meet the needs of future generations. To do so, we’ll have to maintain unity for not just one week, but for fifty-two, if we ever want a welcoming place to pass on the rich heritage of faith entrusted to us.
Can we do it? Not on our own, we can’t. The unity we need requires a bucket load of prayer, along with a whole lot humility and gratitude. The only surefire way I know to stay humble and grateful is to focus on the manifold grace God has showered upon us for almost a decade. Humbled by His grace, we can share our talents. Grateful for Christ’s transforming work in our lives, we remain unified. And as witnesses of God at work among us, we forge ahead in the name of Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
