That Moment

Have you ever experienced it?  That magical, once-in-a-lifetime moment?  That moment when you first realize it?  That moment when you know

you've found your calling. 

I had that moment this week.  All my life, I'd been wondering why I was here.  What was my purpose?  What was God's plan for my life?  I mean, yeah, I was smart, but I never wanted to be anything.  Never wanted to do anything.  Never really wanted to make anything of myself.

They say that God gives each one of us a gift, and he expects us to use that gift for him.  But I was thinking that someone, somewhere had made a mistake.  I'd been passed over in the Gift From God department.  There just didn't seem to be anything I could do.  I can't sing.  I can't dance.  I can't act.  I can't teach.  I sure can't preach.  For 40 some odd years, I'd been floundering along.  Stumbling through life.  Wondering what I was supposed to be doing.  What I was supposed to be being.  This week, I found it.  I know why I'm here.

To knit hats.

Wait, what?  That's not a calling from God!  Being a preacher is a calling from God.  Being a missionary is a calling from God!  Being a gospel singer is a calling from God!  Becoming a doctor who donates his time to help the poor, that is a calling from God.  Not knitting hats.  You're crazy.

Yeah, I thought that too.  But then a few weeks back, I heard on the radio words that changed my life.

God needs ditch diggers, too.

God needs ditch diggers, too.  And God needs garbagemen.  And God needs mail carriers.  And God needs construction workers, and traffic directors, and the guy who pours the asphalt, and the kid who delivers the paper... 

And God needs people to knit hats.  And God needs people to say a little prayer for whoever it is that will wear that hat.  And God needs people to put those hats in a box, along with some pens, toothpaste, a deck of cards, and some jellybeans and God needs people to send that box overseas, to someone who desperately needs to know that those he is fighting for have not forgotten him.

That's what I'm here for.  It's why I've had the compulsion to learn to knit for as long as I can remember.  It's why I had the determination to teach myself, when there was no one around me who knew how to knit.  It's why I had the perseverance to keep trying when everyone was telling me that knitting is too hard, and I should stick with crochet instead. 

I still say that's not a calling from God.  You need to find something else.  Something great.  Something noble.  Something life altering.  Knitting hats doesn't make the world a better place.

Sure it does.  It makes the world a better place for that person who receives it.  This is what I'm supposed to be doing.  This is my gift to God.  This is my cup of cool water. 

It may not be great.  It may not be noble, but it is my task.  A small task, but I will do it as if it were great and noble. 

Because it's my calling.



I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.  Helen Keller