Valerie Rae Hanneman
2 Corinthians 9:2 (NIV) For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.
Several years back both of my children qualified to compete in the National Judo Tournament. That year’s tournament was being held in Hawaii so needless to say I was very willing to accept the invitation. One of the perks that came along with the tournament was a luau. The food was good (except the poi) and the show was great with dancers performing all sorts of different styles of hulas. Then the audience was invited to join the dancers on stage and learn to hula. There were prizes for the best learners in each category. When it came time for the women to compete my children double-dog dared me to go up there. I can’t resist a double-dog dare - so up I went. I was determined to have fun with the situation, because I knew there was no way that I was going to win that contest. I was not a hula dancer. I weighed 300 pounds at that time, and nobody in my entire life had mentioned gracefulness as an attribute of mine. So I got up there and had fun. I laughed, I was enthusiastic about trying, I invented my own moves (no you do not want to imagine them), and when the judges put their hands over the heads of the other contestants I clapped and cheered as loud as I could for all of them.
And here’s the kicker - I won the contest. Can you believe that? The heaviest, clumsiest, most inept contestant up there won the contest. I did not win because I was doing the best hula. Far from it. I won because people responded to my having fun, to my enthusiasm and to my attitude - and that transcended skill. And I will tell you the truth - no chocolate covered macadamia nuts have ever tasted sweeter than the chocolate covered macadamia nuts that I won that night.
I have found that you can determine how important something is to a person by seeing how enthusiastic they are about it. Talk to me about opera and I am going to go catatonic. Talk to me about football and you will quickly find out more about the Dallas Cowboys then you ever wanted to know. I am going to talk Landry, Staubach, the triplets, and Nuygen. With pride, I will tell you that it ain’t football until the ‘boys are on the field.
But if you really want to see me light up with enthusiasm - ask me about Care Fresno Kids Klub. Fawn & Steven are the only ones I am more enthusiastic about than Kids Klub. I am most enthusiastic about Kids Klub because, although I try to serve Jesus in any way I can, Kids Klub is my primary ministry. It allows me the greatest opportunity to serve Him and thereby brings me the greatest joy. Get me to going on Kids Klub and you are going to hear about Donny, my Rachels, Ryan, The Garcias, Anissa, and on and on and on and on about lives changed because God is in Care Fresno.
Other than your family - What lights you up? If a survey was taken among your friends - what would they say is important to you - based on your enthusiasm for it?
Are you enthusiastic about the ministries you are involved in or are they part of the weekly “to-do” list you have? Walk the dog - Check. Take out the trash - Check. Sing in the choir - Check Believe me, I understand that it is impossible to be totally enthusiastic about your ministry at all times. Come into Fellowship Hall on Friday at about 5:30 and you are not going to come face to face with my enthusiasm. Instead you are going to see a drained woman, looking at all the kids that still have to go home, the messes that still need to be cleaned up, a woman who is wondering, “Why do I do this to myself?” But those feelings are temporary. They are negligible when compared to the joy and enthusiasm of 8 of our kids accepting Christ at summer camp - or even better - standing in the choir loft, tears of joy on my face as one of our kids is baptized. The 5:30 Friday night discouragements are going to come - but our enthusiasm for how Jesus is using us to engage our world should far outweigh them. People should know us by our enthusiasm for ministry.
If your ministry is just a check on your “to-do” list, if your enthusiasm for it is low, if you are doing it because “It’s what I do” then maybe it is time to have a talk with Jesus. Ask Him to restore your joy and enthusiasm for your ministry - or to move you to a new ministry where you can be renewed.
Enthusiasm stirs people to action. It stirs them to applause in a silly hula contest and it stirs them to a closer walk with Jesus when a ministry is enhanced by enthusiasm. The enthusiasm that caused me to win the hula contest got me a box of chocolate macadamia nuts. And they were good, but then they were gone. What we get for our enthusiasm in our ministries is so much more. It is the faces of people worshiping around the throne of God for all eternity who might have not been there if our enthusiasm had not stirred them to action.
LORD Jesus, restore in me anew the joy and enthusiasm of serving You and being used by You to stir people top action. Light me up so much that when my friends are asked what I am enthusiastic about they say, “Well duh! It’s Jesus!”
Contact Valerie or subscribe to the e-Ministry of Fresno First Baptist at valerie@fresnofirst.org.
Posted by Valerie at October 14, 2005 07:26 PM