Every Purpose has a Person

This is totally different from anything I have written so far, but then again maybe it's not.

Giving credit where credit is due, my lovely wife, Mindy, spurred me into this thought pattern so you all can thank her.

I have often heard it said that "every person has a purpose." Well, last night, Mindy made me start thinking about community and honor, comparing it to my life on a submarine. The wheels began turning, albeit quite slowly, but I began to realize something. On the boat there were what were called watch bills, battle stations, maneuvering, damage control, cleaning, whatever the emergency or even the general daily activity required there was a list of responsibilities and a person or people assigned to each.

I then realized it is a "purpose for every person"! This may seem a very trivial difference but think about it. On a submarine if a purpose isn’t fulfilled what could happen to the boat? It could sink the whole ship and her crew gone! Every purpose has a person; the watch bill assigns specific purposes for every crew member and each crew member is responsible for his, or her, own action.

My first patrol on the boat I was assigned as “Bandit Kit, DC Forward”. Woo, hoo, now that’s an important position. I was a “New Bee”, brand new, straight out of training,
FLOB (Free Loading Oxygen breather). I wasn’t qualified to stand any watches, could barely find my way in and out of the shower, so, I had no purpose. Or so I thought.

DC forward stood for Damage Control Party Forward. That meant that if any damage occurred to the forward part of the ship we were assigned to combat, or fix it. If something happened that caused flooding we were required to go in and make the immediate repairs necessary to stop the flooding and save the ship. Guess what was needed to make the repairs to stop the flooding, the “Band It Kit”. In this kit were parts that sound real cool but basically mean they wrap around or stick into a pipe that has leak to stop the leak. Not to mention that the pipe was multiple inches in diameter and the leak had thousands of pounds of sea pressure behind it.

The point is that if I didn’t show up with the “Band It Kit” who would have? What would have happened to the ship and her crew?

What about the Body of Christ? Every purpose has a person here too. God has called you and me to something. The purpose he has called me to is probably quite different than yours. But that purpose is assigned to you or to me. If I don’t fulfill my purpose, then who will? If Daniel hadn’t stood up, if that young shepherd boy hadn’t stood against Goliath, if the unnamed woman hadn’t broken the alabaster box to anoint Christ, who would have?

We have to quit whining. “Why is his purpose bigger than mine?” We have to quit arguing with what the leadership God has set before us has asked us to do. Sometimes “it is not to wonder why, it is just required to say aye, aye.”

I am not saying to go jump blindly off a cliff. We have the word of God to direct us in all that we do. It may, however; be required that we jump off a cliff, seeing the ledge we are jumping to, wondering if we can make it, wondering if it will hold, and more importantly wondering what is on the other side. It is not a blind leap, it is a leap of faith.

To take a quote from Kevin Leal, “I don’t just want to hear what God has said, I want to hear what God is saying.” If all Abraham heard was what had God said, he would have sacrificed Isaac. He had to be ready to hear what God was saying at that time when he raised the knife.

The same thing should be applied to our lives. Sometimes our leadership is hearing what God is saying. It may sound a little different than what had been said but it is still the Lord with new direction. Community takes a complete buying in to what God is saying through our leadership. Lukewarm doesn’t cut it. Hot or cold, that is what is required or He will spit us out.

Once again, you won’t go blindly. If anything that is said is against the Bible, or tells you to commit a sin, then all bets are off. But every purpose has a person, you have to fulfill your purpose for the Body of Christ to be fulfilled.