"Price tags.........................."

Rummaging through my closet awhile back, I found an old journal began in January 2001, but abandoned June 28th that same year. Each page contains a devotional for that day, some sort of trivial anecdote followed by a question posed to be answered. Why should I have renewed the task in an effort to complete the volume a decade later is beyond me, but one entry in July gave me pause yesterday. Referring to an item in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not”, the writer pointed to an iron ingot being valued at no more than $5 as it was, but if fashioned into a pair of horseshoes, its worth rose to $50, if formed into sewing needles the amount jumped to $5000, and if made into balance springs for exquisite Swiss watches - the bar would bring $500,000! His point with such illustration, however, was to suggest that it was just the same with believers who would develop their talents, abilities, and spiritual gifts as a force for divine good in this world; but I would beg to differ… It is not our individual potentials that distinguish us in the eyes of God. Rather it is our willingness to be used of Him in whatsoever capacity He might require of us, for whatsoever commitment He might determine. While His calling may well be, as the apostle Paul declares in Romans, without repentance, nothing is necessarily permanent therein, in so far as any particular assignment. I’ve known far too many, along the way in this, who seemed to think the pulpit to be their only ministry, any other need beneath their dignity…….