I Have Picked My Part

Jon taught at church Sunday. I always enjoy getting to hear him teach. After he had finished, Pastor Fred got up and was thanking Jon for teaching etc. He said something that is said every week in church by him or another pastor. “I have picked my part.” This always sort of confused me until yesterday when he went on to say, “For me, my part is when he talked about using our words to encourage and strengthen like Silas. You pick your part.” Each week a pastor will stand up in front of the church and say “I have picked my part”. And I was really impacted by that this week as I reflected on it.

We have been studying in James and the sermon on the mount this week for Terebinth. The Lord has been revealing that to walk in a way pleasing to Him is to walk in humility, mercy and to love every single person around us. Judgement and partiality are huge themes in both of these areas of Scripture. But so often they are areas we justify in our lives.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have been sitting in a service either thinking ‘oh I wish so and so was here to get this’ or ‘hope YOU’RE paying attention, so and so’. But I have to be intentional about “picking my part”. Our sinful heart naturally want to judge others, to feel superior to others, to be more righteous than others. But we are to love God and love others. Jesus said to love others as He loved us. That means loving them, bearing their burdens, caring for them and bringing truth into their lives. But I can’t help pick the log out of someone’s eye if my eye is logged up. But when I am willing to pick my part when I hear teaching from the Word, my logs get smaller and easier to remove. But if all I can think about is how much everyone else needs that, my log just knocks people in the face.

So I want to encourage you today, as many of us file into church to hear the Bible taught, pick your part. For me, my part, is that I need to always be looking for my part to pick.

Below is a giraffe I saw on Saturday :) (unrelated, but cool!)