No Christian should ever think or say that he is not fit to be God's
instrument, for that in fact is what it means to be a Christian. We may
be humble about many things, but we may never decline to be used.
John the Baptist told the people by the river Jordan, "I baptize you
with water, for repentance, but the one who comes after me is mightier
than I, and I am not fit to take off his shoes." Then Jesus himself came
to be baptized by him, and John tried to dissuade him, saying to him,
"Do you come to me? I need rather to be baptized by you." Jesus
replied, "Let it be so for the present; we do well to conform in this
way with all that God requires." So John baptized him whose shoes he
was not fit to take off.
The gospel is full of reassurances to us, some of them startling. You
are salt to the world! You are light to all the world! Even the hairs of
your head have all been counted! These words were exciting to those
who heard them. Things might be dark but they were to be the light of
the world. They were given a new sense of their value as persons.
Especially was this true of women. One can hardly describe the joy of
the first disciples, who were given by Jesus such a sense of their
significance in the world. This same sense of significance has been
given again and again to other people by disciples of Jesus. Of these
none was greater than Fancis of Assisi. He might well have prayed:
To those who have lost their way, let me restore it to them.
To those who are aimless, let me bring purpose.
To those who do not know who they are, let me teach them that they
are the children of God and can be used as His instruments in the
never-ending work of healing and redemption.
There are therefore two things for us to do. The first is never to
doubt that God can use us if we are willing to be used, no matter what
our weaknesses. The second is to see that God can use any other person
who is willing to be used, whatever his weaknesses, and if need be, to
assure him of this truth."
Who is Alan Paton? Alan Stewart Paton was an anglican priest educated
at the University of Natal in South Africa. He was an outspoken
opponent of apartheid, and perhaps best know for his novel Cry, the
Beloved Country. He also wrote a series of meditations inspired by
St. Francis of Assisi's familiar prayer on being an instrument of God's
peace. Paton lived from 1903 to 1988.
To visit the Lenten Meditations site, click here.
To visit The Practical Disciple, click here.
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