Daily Devotional

Many of us could look back on our lives and identify moments that altered the course of our lives forever. I can think of many such moments: the birth of my daughter, the Bible study where I met my wife, the phone call from an old family friend inviting me to intern at his church. Let me take you back to one such moment in Preteen Mark’s life.

It was June 2, 2013. At the seasoned age of twelve years old, a short, prepubescent Mark with thick glasses and a startling degree of overconfidence was tasked with teaching his 5th/6th grade Sunday School class on Colossians 3:23-24. (That was a LOT scarier than it sounds; the Dallas megachurch where I grew up had well over 50 students in that class per service, and I had to teach both!) I still have my outline and PowerPoint from that message, and admittedly they are as cringey as you would expect from a twelve-year old. (I’ve learned a lot since then.) However, I LOVED every minute of that experience. In hindsight, it was a watershed moment in my discovery of my teaching gift and my journey into full-time ministry.

Years of reflection have given me a deep admiration for the pastor of that middle school youth group, Pastor Joe. Across several weeks, he walked twelve-year-old Mark – unproven, untested, and definitely unskilled – through every step of the lesson planning process, then let him loose on his highly impressionable middle-school congregation. In retrospect, I’m kind of shocked he did so. Who lets an arrogant little twelve-year-old preach his own Sunday sermon? Talk about a risk! But that pastor saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself: a gift and calling from the Holy Spirit. He chose to cultivate that gift, even in ways that were shocking and unexpected. While God rarely, if ever, reveals “what would have happened,” my guess is that I might not be in ministry were it not for the risk that Pastor Joe took in letting me teach.

We see a similar story in the life of the prophet Samuel. In 1 Samuel 3, the young Samuel hears God calling his name, but repeatedly mistakes it for the voice of his mentor/guardian, the priest Eli. It slowly dawns on Eli that the voice calling Samuel is the LORD’s. Eli also recognizes what this implies: by speaking to Samuel, God is calling him to the ministry of a prophet. Samuel tells the boy to respond by saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears:” in other words, encouraging him to step into the role the LORD has given him. Thus, Eli affirms the call of God on Samuel’s life and challenges him to pursue it, just as that middle school pastor did for me ten-odd years ago.

Is the Lord calling you to be an Eli or a Pastor Joe? Perhaps you have observed God’s hand at work in the life of someone you know, young or old. Maybe your son or daughter has an unusually tender heart for the lost. Maybe a friend has expressed a desire to teach the Word to others. There is great power, in my experience, in telling someone, “I see God at work in you in this way.” Maybe your encouragement will provide the catalyst for someone to “fan into flame the gift of God” (2 Timothy 1:6). Who knows? That person might be writing a devotional about YOU years from now!

"English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers."