A Holy Spreadsheet
Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
1 Corinthians 12:6
The baby had been born almost three months early. While he struggled to survive in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, his parents struggled to understand his medical situation, care for one another and for their other two children, and keep hope alive.
Back at our church a member of the pastoral care team put together a care plan for this family. This woman has great gifts of organization and hospitality. The spreadsheet she eventually created included columns for meals, rides to the hospital, rides from the hospital, and caretakers for the two siblings. Several weeks’ worth of columns were quickly filled with the names of helpful people, but it was the organized hospitality of the pastoral care giver that tied it all together into an extraordinary ministry.
Volunteers like these do their work as an act of worship. They use the gifts that God gave them to make beautiful things happen for others, and the people who benefit from their ministry truly see God’s work in it.
The child is now strong and healthy, thank God. And his parents still have the spread sheet as a testimony of the church’s care.
How do you use your gifts to serve God?
We praise you for your care, awesome God! You give us gifts and send us into ministry. When we experience pain, you send us people to make us recipients of ministry. In either case, we see something of your beauty and love. Amen.
About the author — David Den Haan
Pastor Dave Den Haan has served at Fairway Christian Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan, since 1999. Previously he served a church in Minnesota. Dave and his wife, Connie, have three children.
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