Every Christian A Minister
Following several days in the hospital, I arrived home and remembered, “Tomorrow is trash pick up day. I must get it out to the curb because I missed it last week.” Worn out from my hospital stay, I groaned and told myself I would somehow do it in the morning. The following morning, I glanced out the window and saw the trash truck. Hurriedly and painfully, I gathered our trash from containers in the house and took it to the trash can in the garage. Stuffing the can full, I left the trash in it. Having been instructed not to lift anything, I just rolled the entire container to the street.
This time luck was on my side---the trash collector was next door at my neighbor’s house. “I was hoping you would lift the bag out for me,” I said, “ I am not supposed to lift anything over five pounds.” He easily lifted it out and placed it in his truck. In my concern with the trash, I was not listening carefully; but suddenly I realized this man knows I have just had a pacemaker installed. How does he know that? He was telling me about his 90-year-old mother who is on her third pacemaker. “The first one lasted ten years,” he said. “The second one lasted six years, and they say this one will last twenty years.”
I am unable to tell you how much those encouraging words meant to my troubled soul. To put it in “ministerial jargon,” He ministered to me. I cannot tell you how often I have been called a minister, and I hope I have been a good one. I can, however, tell you that every Christian can be a minister. You do not have to be behind the pulpit to minister; you can even minister over a trash can.
