(After finishing today’s post, I came back and added this disclaimer. This is a blog to encourage you to use your gifts, some that God has been working in you for dozens of years and others relatively new. Please read it from that perspective.)
I am blessed to be able to look back on my life and see God at work in ways I could not have understood at the time. When I was 13 years old He put me in front of a deep fryer frying french fries and onion rings on a Sunday afternoon at a little drive-in restaurant. My grandmother paid me 50 cents an hour. In college I worked at McDonald’s, becoming a shift manager. I am sure could have had a lucrative career at McDonald’s.
John Piper famously said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life and you are only aware of three of them.” I know God was doing many things in me when I began working at 13. One of the things He was doing is to give me a background in food. And He gave me a partner in Diane who has a similar background, although hers began while baking in her mother’s kitchen.
Today, 40+ years later, we are using the gifts He gave us and the things He allowed us to learn about food to glorify Him. On April 22 we (along with a few of our friends) will be serving as many as 200 people Chicken Parmesan, coleslaw, and desserts. It is a fundraiser for the Frankfort High School After Prom Party. Since we have come to Short Gap we have done many dinner fundraisers, fed dozens of teams and groups at the church, and we feed 50-100 people every Wednesday at the church’s community dinners.
And this blog is not intended to glorify Diane and me, but to glorify Him. (To be honest, this is also an advertisement for the dinner on the 22nd). Some people have the gift of singing, some people can play the piano or clarinet, some people can write, some people have the gift of nurturing and/or compassion, some people can hit a baseball, and the list goes on. The point is this: all that matters is what you do with your gifts. Do you glorify Him? Do you show His love?
He has given me the gift to write. I know that. Yet sometimes it is difficult to find the time or motivation. And he has given me a friend in Montana who goes as far as sending me cards (in the mail, no less) to encourage me to keep writing. So I do it for God’s glory. He has given me the ability to feed large crowds. I do it for God’s glory. He has given me a heart to preach the Gospel for His glory. The life of serving and following Jesus is all about using our gifts and graces to glorify Him. How are you using yours?
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Scott Knowlton's Blog 