Lighthouse Keeper

 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. (1 Kings 17:7-16).

If you’re like me, you may have spent a lot of time with Jesus asking “What is my assignment? What is my purpose? Why am I here?”

 It’s a huge topic but I’ll give you a little journey through my thinking. 

First of all, I think of it in terms of macro and micro assignments. 

So for me the macro assignment comes from Romans 1 in the The Message. This is the big picture that all Christians are called to do. You can rephrase this as ”magnify God” of “make Jesus known” or whatever but I like how it is written in the The Message:

I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God’s words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God’s friends. (Romans 1 1-2) The Message 

Proclaim God’s words and acts. That’s my macro assignment. You will need to spend a lot of quiet time with the Lord seeking his direction around this but it’s well worth the wait because then you will have a clear picture about what you do and don’t spend your time on in this life that is full of distractions.

Then there’s my micro assignments that happen throughout the day and arrive as daily bread and daily grace. 

An example of this is the widow of Zarephath who was out gathering firewood. Both Elijah and the widow are given daily, micro assignments in this passage. The widow to feed Elijah and Elijah to go and stay at the region of Zarephath. 

Last week I was out gathering kindling for my fire with my new rescue American Bull Terrier puppy, Rita. I was actually thinking about the widow of Zarephath as I was gathering my firewood (Paul also gathers firewood after his shipwreck in the book of Acts 28:3-5); a very common, everyday task to do. 

My puppy Rita started jumping up and down excitedly on this man in his forties who was at the river fly fishing. I apologised and he said it was OK that he loves dogs…then he started to cry. He told me how last week, he had a medical emergency with his Labrador Retriever of 12 years and the dog didn’t make it and died at the after hours vets. He said: “It was the worst day of my life”. 

Rita continued to slobber all over him and his tears turned to laughter. She was comforting him in his time of mourning for his best friend (Matthew 5:4). I told him that Rita is a Bull Terrier crossed with a Labrador Retriever and that’s why she likes him so much (an exaggeration –she likes everyone) but it put a smile on his face. 

Maybe that was my (and Rita’s) micro God assignment for the day? To bring joy to someone going through a hard time of grief. 

Maybe your micro God assignment is to cook a healthy dinner for yourself or bathe your kids or give someone a phone call or hand in a lost wallet. Who knows? And I guess we’ll never know until we get to Heaven how it all stitches together. Simple, everyday things make up 99% of your Christian walk so start looking for the mercies and miracles as you go about your day.  And stop beating up yourself that you’re not doing enough for God. God has macro and micro assignments for everyone.