The Trusted Office

What kinds of work would you describe as important or trustworthy? An FBI agent protecting the president, a food inspector, or a college president? Those are all great guesses, but they’re not what I’m thinking about.

I Chronicles 9 describe the jobs of the Levites who lived in Jerusalem. Some were priests working in God’s house. Others were gatekeepers. Four special Levites kept the treasury. Others were singers. Towards the end of the chapter, we learn about a man who had a “trusted office.” His name was Mattithiah, and he “had the trusted office over the things that were baked in the pans.” He seems to have a small job that wouldn’t be worth noticing, but God put his unique job in the Bible and called it a “trusted office.”

Sometimes my jobs seem as small and unimportant as Mattithiah’s pots and pans. After all, I’m just a college student. All I do is write papers and serve people food in the cafeteria, right? How can that be a ministry to God? Mattithiah reminds me that “fulfilling the will of God” isn’t about doing some “big” ministry, but it is about being faithful to the “trusted office” God has given. That trusted office can be as small as listening to somebody who needs to talk or smiling at a sad person in the supper line.

God has a trusted office for you, too. What is it?

“Mattithiah…had the trusted office over the things that were baked in the pans.” – I Chronicles 9:31

Birthday Explorations

Celeste had a birthday, and the peeps surprised her - twice, actually:)

The girls decorated creatively on Friday evening, and we enjoyed cake and played Ninja very energetically in the lounge. On Sunday afternoon, Bekah pulled me out of Greek homework; and she, Alisha, Beth, Valerie, and I spent two hours roaming the plaza. We did NOT buy anything, but we enjoyed feeling sophisticated in skirts and high heels, looking at an art gallery, smelling perfumes, and taking the following pictures. Please enjoy your tour.

This nameless gentlemen looked like he needed a good laugh. He is one of my many cousins.

The pictures above and below are taken on the same bridge. It looked out over a river that was still and beautiful (but smelly, I'm sure). I particularly noticed the landscaping on either side of the river: it was well weeded.

After wondering around in heels, we finished up the afternoon with a Skyscraper shake. It looked very large when the waitress brought it out, but the five of us polished it off nicely.

And this is a random shot of Bekah and I last Sunday evening. College does not serve supper on Sunday evening, so we vetoed our traditional peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwitch-on-store-bought-hamburger-buns in favor of a hot dog and a large tea at Sonic. (She had the hot dog, and I the tea, btw.) Thank you Bekah, for coming and doing the whole College thing with me! Thanks everybody for a great birthday!

God's Peace Showed to People

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." - John 14:27

"Ye are the light of the world." - Matthew 5:14

"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you." - Ephesians 4:32

"There is [he] that scattereth, and yet increaseth." - Proverbs 11:24

"Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." - Luke 9:24