Putting You before me.

Several months ago my sister and I took a long road trip, something she is famous for.  I, however, had not ventured out on one in quite some time.  We chose the long drive rather than fly as we both were pinching pennies and opted for the more economical route.

As usual in our adventures together there were moments filled with raucous laughter, silly jokes and occasionally some serious, soul-searching discussions.  None of these conversations led to world peace or the solving of multiple dilemmas we both had going on in our lives, but they were treasured as important times of bonding.

I discovered on this trip that her smartphone had a great deal more respect for her than did mine.  And that was quite disturbing to me.  Respect, you ask?  What in the world do you mean?

At some point on the first day of our trip, we struck up a conversation with a challenging question that needed an answer.  In order to get an answer, she went to her cell phone and posed the question to Siri.  I practically fell out of my seat (which could have been disastrous as I was driving) when a distinctive British male voice responded, answering our question quite politely while addressing her as Your Majesty.  WHAAAAT??

Suddenly the Siri on my phone seemed very unfriendly, commonplace and certainly not nearly as respectful as my sister’s faithful, soothing gentlemen that she had summoned.  I needed someone like that.

“How did you do that?” I asked.  And so she proceeded to introduce me to having a polite, male voice with an English accent who respectfully refers to me as Your Royal Highness when I call on Siri.  Your Majesty had already been taken, so I had to come up with a new title for myself.  Silly as it may seem, being addressed as royalty made me feel important, revered and respected.

While doing my Bible Study this morning there were so many things that spoke to me and I scribbled on my notepad — “building Your kingdom rather than mine.”  I have to remind myself that I am royalty as I am a child of the King.  Sometimes I tend to forget that.

But I also needed to remind myself that this is His kingdom and not mine.  He’s on the throne, not me.  No matter how many times Siri may refer to me as Your Royal Highness.

Whatever I do, I am to do for his glory and not mine.  That’s why I love to stay in a Bible Study even when I feel my plate is too full, to bring me back to the things that are most important.  The priorities from God, rather than from me.

We are studying the Gospel of Mark and I was reading Mark 6:7-13 where Jesus called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out in pairs, giving them the authority to do all kinds of things in His name. Things they never thought they would be able to do.  Things they were not equipped to do.

But Jesus had a lot of stipulations of the provisions that they were to take with them.  They could have a walking stick, but not food, no money and certainly no suitcase.  They didn’t even have a change of clothes.  (You should have seen the back of my car with multiple suitcases for our trip).

I really hadn’t given this “commission” much thought until today and I came away with some valuable lessons that I need to remember as I travel my journey.

• Don’t worry about the “things” that I think I need.
• Trust that all the provisions I need to accomplish what God has called me to do He will provide. Even when I can’t even imagine some of them.
• Stay in constant contact with God to know exactly what that calling is.
• Take time from the hustle and bustle for needed rest when the journey is long and your physical and mental resources seem low.  Only God can refill our tank, provide new provisions and soothe our tired bodies and minds, preparing us for the next task.

God has lots of journeys planned for us. Lots of things still left for us to do. Are we listening to hear Him tell us where He wants us to go?  What He wants us to say?  Sometimes our lives are too noisy and we can’t hear His voice.  Take time to be still.  Have a quiet conversation.  Listen and you will hear.