First Draft for the Winning Team

I am currently participating in the Wednesday night women’s study “Becoming A Vessel God Can Use.”  This has been a huge blessing to me so far and I am looking forward to the things that God will continue to reveal to me throughout the course of this study.

This week’s focus is “Getting To Know Your Potter.”   The writer makes an observation that really got me thinking:
I remember taking my daughter, Leah, to Disneyland.  When she saw a performer dressed up like Beauty (from Beauty and the Beast), she was overjoyed.  I thought she was going to leap out of her skin.  Now think about it: she could not contain her excitement in the presence of a twenty-something girl, dressed up like a fictional, animated character.  But we don’t even bother going to God.  And when we do, we can barely stay awake.  What’s wrong with this picture?

Wow.  That statement really got to me.   Since I have been off work this week, my daily quiet time has taken the back burner.  It’s been a struggle, which makes no sense-shouldn’t I have MORE time than when I am working?   You can bet that if Peyton Manning was signing autographs down the street, I’d be dropping everything to go stand in line.  For a person who will never know me, and could care less about me.  I have the opportunity to stand before the throne of the one and only Almighty God, who created the Universe, any time I want!!!  Where is the excitement?

A friend bought me a book about the life of Tony Dungy.  (In case you don’t know, he’s only the best coach ever in the NFL and he does just so happen to be a Christian who credits his successes to God.)  I remember reading about the excitement Tony had as an aspiring football player, waiting by the phone for a call that he’d been chosen as a first draft player.  Friends would invite him to do things, and he would refuse…he did not want to miss that phone call.  Days and days he would sit by the phone.   His life was wrapped up in a temporary fulfillment: to be a football player.  The average career length of a pro-football player is 4 years.  They receive pension at 6 years.  Our whole lifetime is but a vapor in the wind…what is 6 years?  God stands waiting, always with His arms open, for us to choose to be used by Him.  He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and completely sovereign.  He can accomplish anything with the blink of an eye.  Yet He chooses to use us as vessels to do His work.  Why, oh WHY are we not honored by that choice?  Why are we not jumping at the chance to serve Him, spend time with Him, and worship Him?

It seems so simple, yet so complicated.  I hope to become a person who chooses to be a vessel that God can use, instead of a dried-up, useless vessel waiting for the next temporary fill.  As Christians we don’t have to wait for a phone call.  We are already a first-draft pick, chosen for the winning team.