USEFUL

 

            Sometimes, what seems very poor may be quite useful.  We have a pasture behind our house.  It is a twenty or thirty acre field.  To the unknowing person such as me it appears to be covered in grass that is good for hay.  To the educated and more knowledgeable person it is just sage brush and really has no nutritional value.  Without fertilizer and weed spray it will never be very good hay.  With that being said, it was quite a surprise to me the other day when a man came by wanting to cut and bail the field behind our house.  As we rode over the field I ask him if the hay was any good.  He said “no.”  So I ask him why he wanted it.  He said that he would like to use it for landscaping.  Though the hay would not sustain cows as a nutritional source it could keep the land from eroding away.  Which is more valuable?

 

            Isn’t it amazing that what may have very little value one way might be very valuable another way?  It is that way in our walk with the Lord.  Many times we feel we are of no value because we are not cut out to do what many around us are doing.  We may not have the same gifts that other Christians possess but that doesn’t render us as worthless.  One may have the gift to teach or preach and be like one that can add spiritual nutrition to lives while another may possess a gift for giving wise counsel and keep a life from being washed away by worldly floods.

 

            I appreciate the man coming by and wanting to cut our hay.  He saw the potential use for the hay where others had no interest.  I love the Lord in the same way.  He saw my life and saw potential that I didn’t see.  He has taken what seemed of no value and has made something of spiritual value fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.  God is ever evaluating our lives as some men evaluate property.  He knows what our potential is.  He is ever testing us and proving us.  May he use us for his glory and honor even if it is to just keep a spiritual life from eroding.

 

Yours in Christ,

 

Brother Randy Burtram