On Minuscule Spaces

But the Lord said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, it is not you who shall build my house...'

-II Chronicles 6:8-9a          

"You did well that it was in your heart." Serving and glorifying God, while He does give a specific approach, can still be varied for every individual saved by grace. Sometimes, you get to be blessed with a task that has an easily recognizable path leading to it. Leaders taking care of the flock. Men being called to preach. To shepherd. To counsel. Women being called to motherhood. To rearing up godly offspring. To benevolent service. To playing the church piano. To counseling other women.

But most of the time, for many people, the calling is not as clear-cut and descriptive of a "job description." Washing the mugs. Scrubbing the bathroom floor. Waiting for anyone who'd ask for help. Some roles, so to speak, are too short-lived and seasonal (say, every afternoon breaks after everyone had finished their coffees) to be clear-cut of a description. So we try to grasp every little role we could get, to somehow make up for their brevity. And for people with such short-lived roles, it can be disheartening, frustrating, and hurting to have those little spaces for work cut down further. When you are kept from being involved in an activity planning. When you are told, "Kami nalang mag-uusap usap." Your little space gets smaller and smaller. Minuscule. But this is in man's eyes, man's standards. In the eyes of the Lord, one's action (and inaction) stands or falls based on his heart's intentions. 

"You did well that it was in your heart." 

Some tasks, you desire to do for the Lord as an expression of gratitude and worship for all that who He is, and for all the things He has done for you. After all, He is my Savior who was wounded for my transgressions. He emptied Himself of the glory of His deity by becoming the lowliest of mankind. He suffered pain. He was tempted and tried in every way, and He triumphed over sin every single time. He was "mocked, insulted, beaten, bound." He was denied by friends and abandoned by disciples. He, most of all, took the wrath of God, the eternal God, thrice holy and majestic, perfect and cannot behold iniquity--He took the wrath of God, and for the first and only time in history, the Father turned His back on His Son. All to save me. All to redeem a people who will be worshipers and servants to the living God.

How can one who is a recipient of so great a salvation not fervently desire to serve Him in every way possible? But we also have a God who is operating with a master plan in mind. We are but tiny pieces of the puzzle, and He gets to choose for us what our part in the grand picture will be. David wasn't the one meant to build the temple for the LORD. Solomon was. And maybe it isn't my task to "take the word to the farthest corners of the earth," or to plan the next Gen 2.0 sessions, or take part in the Singles Conference conceptualizing. And maybe for all my life, the only way I can express my love for my Savior is by washing the visitors' mugs and scrubbing the bathroom floors, and actively trying to know the brethren towards building up and mutual love; to keep on praying for individual and church revivals. Maybe I am not meant to have the clearest and most descriptive "calling" description. But so long as the Lord knows my heart's deepest desires for Him, and so long as there is space to occupy, no matter how minuscule,

I will be content to fill a little space, if through that, God is most glorified.