Be all that you can be

AM Psalm 119:97-120 • PM Psalm 81, 82
Gen. 27:1-29 • Rom. 12:1-8 • John 8:12-20

In today’s reading from Romans, Paul describes “gifts that differ according to the grace given to us” but the notion that we may only perform “each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” seems like a limitation.

Just prior to that verse, Paul reminds his readers “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.” Of course, we all understand the “sober judgment” that comes to bear in our lives, when our childhood aspirations of being an Olympic athlete or astronaut or (fill in the blank) are met with the practical reality of our physical or intellectual limitations—but it seems like our faith should not have any such limits if we understand God’s grace to be expansive and all-inclusive.

Perhaps Paul’s message was meant to promote “job satisfaction” in whatever capacity in which we are called to serve? It is true that not everyone is a born leader—or minister, or teacher, or exhorter—but we are called to be “transformed by the renewing of (our) minds” to do what is good and acceptable and perfect. Not boastfully, nor by stepping on others’ talents and gifts, but by the mercies of God.

“Be all that you can be” was the United States Army’s recruiting slogan for decades… and, evidently, it was a good one, because it stuck in my head. I believe that God calls us to “be all that we can be”—but not to get caught up in being ALL the things we might desire to be. There is a place and a space for each of us to fill in God’s kingdom.

Written by Shannon Dillard Mitchell

...who is grateful for opportunities to be an exhorter, when that gift is called for.