Pleaser

I was told once by a close friend that all ministers are pleasers at heart. We desire to make others happiers and help to improve their life. So, if I believe all of us are called to ministry through our personal identities.. (helper, musician, carpenter, teacher, manager, leader, pastor, administrator, cleaner) then it stands to reason that ministry is one of those elemental forces like music that has ties into everything else that I do. We can all do it, but it should be a choice. We are ministers, the question is how we choose to act and what we do with who we are.

Doing versus being are very different things. I began a new small group this week with men I barely know.(participating, not leading) As we got to know one another, I shared about myself and then I asked them who they are. It was a difficult question for each of us. My natural inclination is to answer instead with what I do, not who I am.

I am a musician. I am a family man.

If I am confident in who I am then I can explicitly choose to DO all kinds of things.
I can help people, or not.
I can sing or not.
I can be nice, or not.
I can be safe, or not.
I can build or I can tear down.

I know I haven't tied all of these ideas together very well this morning, but somehow by writing them down, it helps me. This is what I am thinking about. I will try to tie this back to some scripture later...I know it is there, the references elude me right now.

Ideas welcome... haven't had a comment in a long time but I hope someone is still reading. I keep writing regardless.