Last week my wife and I flew to Salt Lake City for my son’s wedding. My wife has been very busy at work and had to get a mailing out for one of her company’s annual meetings so she decided that she needed to work the day we were going to fly out. I picked her up around noon and we rushed to the airport. Getting through airport security after 9/11 is a major feat in itself but we got through without any problems and got to our gate to wait on our plane.

Our flight to Salt Lake City connected through Las Vegas. The flight to Las Vegas was good but long and crowded. When we arrived, we only had 40 minutes until our connecting flight took off so we had to rush to the next gate. After having major back surgery in May, I don’t move too quickly and I had my heavy laptop computer bag to carry. The gate we had to go to was all the way on the other side of McCarran International Airport in Vegas so we rushed as quickly as we could to get to the gate. My wife carried the laptop most of the way. When we got there, we found out that our flight was delayed by an hour.

Our plane finally arrived and we got to Salt Lake City about an hour and a half later. The gates for Southwest Airlines at Salt Lake City’s airport are the farthest out, or as we would say where I grew up, “out in the south 40”. We got through the airport, got our rental car and headed to my son’s house. We were both totally exhausted and got in bed not long after we got to his house.

We had a good time in Utah and got home around 1:30 in the morning and my wife was up early the next morning for an appointment with the eye doctor and then back to work. After work, she stopped by to see some friends from Indiana who were staying at the resort where she works. The next day, my wife flew out to Atlanta but there were thunderstorms in Orlando so they were delayed by a few hours. Because of that, they missed their connecting flight in Atlanta so they rented a car and drove to Franklin, Tennessee, the entire way in the rain and then, the next morning got up early and drove on in to Gatlinburg just in time for one of their business meetings.

By the time my wife got to Gatlinburg, she was not feeling well and when she finally got home at almost midnight two days later, she was really sick.

Our immune systems just weren’t made to take that kind of abuse. The same thing goes for our spiritual lives. It is easy for us to “become weary in well doing” as the Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 6:9.

There are so many needs in the body of Christ and it is easy to get to the place that you want to step up and fill every need you see. That is an admirable thing but not what God has called us to.

As the pastor of some small churches, if I didn’t do things, they didn’t get done. I found out quickly that pastoring also meant that I was the book keeper, the janitor, the secretary and about anything else you can think of. Churches depend on the people that attend. Too many people just think someone else will do what needs to be done and then the load ends up being too great on others. If you are not involved in a church, let me encourage you to become involved. All of us have probably said at one time or another that we can be a Christian without going to church and that is true but you are robbing yourself and others of a blessing. We need each other! God has put different gifts inside all of us and those gifts are to be shared, not hoarded.

Romans 12:6-8 American Standard Version
 6 And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;
 7 or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching;
 8 or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.

Every church has its core of people. In a church of one hundred people, you might have ten people that really get things done. In a church of five thousand, there might only be one hundred people that are at the core. There is always room for you and the calling God has put in your life.

I heard a wise saying once, “Your gift (calling) will make room for itself”. If you get involved and make yourself available, God will put you where you need to be. If you are involved and find yourself doing too much, you have to be careful that you don’t get overextended and that you start stepping into other people’s ministries or callings.

It is easy to get in a ditch on both sides of a road but we have to watch that we stay in the middle of the road. We can do one of two things. The first is to not do anything and the second is to do so much we do become weary in well doing. If we will all make ourselves available and let God make room for our callings, the church will run smoothly and people’s lives will be blessed! Get involved in your local church but don’t let yourself get overextended!