“Go now and tell what God has done for you.” ~ Luke
8:39
Traffic snaked up the hill; two
lines of steel and rubber; each capable of over 100 MPH but averaging only 5 in
their start-stop manner. Frustration
simmered like scorched concrete that stretched for miles ahead.
Logan tapped his car’s accelerator and inched forward. He sighed heavily; eyes constantly shifting
from his watch to the speedometer to the traffic ahead.
Finally, after a painfully slow crawl, Logan saw the problem. A repair crew had closed down half of the
two-lane highway, leaving a single lane for the Friday afternoon,
get-me-to-my-cabin traffic to bleed through.
He didn’t have time for this!
Marking the start of a coned-off
section stood a safety-vested flagger holding an unmistakable ‘Stop’ sign. Squinted into the sun, Logan considered the poor
man’s plight.
His job consisted of barking orders
across a two-way radio to the other flagger at the end of the construction zone.
Every so often he rotated his sign from ‘Stop’
to ‘Slow in order to direct the traffic flow.
“His time must flow like a three-toed sloth,” Logan surmised.
As he approached the repair area, the flagger turned his
sign to ‘Stop.’ Logan rolled his eyes, applied
the brakes, and turned off the ignition - he knew he’d be waiting a while. The aroma of fresh asphalt wafted in.
Logan stopped within earshot of the flagger and decided to
strike up a conversation with the young man. In a tone of almost sympathetic-honesty,
he said, “I’m sorry. That’s got to be
the most boring job on the planet. How
can you stand it?”
A smile spread across the flagger’s face. “I love this job,” he proudly exclaimed without
hesitation. “I LOVE it because it matters! I keep everybody safe. I get to make a real difference every day.”
As if the flagger was trying to
decide whether to say it or not, he added, “I’m so grateful that God lead me
here. He never wastes a single one of us.
This is my “spiritual gift.”
To most people, this story might
seem hard to believe. This guy was not a
teacher, pastor, social worker, or doctor.
He definitely wasn’t Gandhi, Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King
Jr. He was a road construction flagger!
Yet it bears all the hallmarks
of a calling and the highway was his mission field. God gives us specific spiritual gifts as the
primary avenue for Him to bless and encourage others. Natural talents are imparted when we are born;
spiritual gifts on the other hand, are increased as we mature in our
relationship with God.
Ours’s is a mysterious and
clever God. He speaks to us and guides
us in many different ways, and we’ll probably miss His voice if we aren’t
listening. But when we do hear Him, it
can change lives.
Lord, help me find the courage and the
desire to share what You’ve done in my life. Turn my past into my purpose and refuse to let
my suffering be for nothing. Amen
