TO MICHAEL, MY SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR

I have been thinking about you this morning in the context of God telling Abraham “I will bless you... and I will make you a blessing.”

God has blessed you in such a dramatic way with a wealth of knowledge, life experience, and interpersonal skills. Yet He needed to send you into a more direct ministry to make you a blessing. Might you have been so “full” that you had to utilize some of that blessing for the benefit of others in order to be “re-filled?”

God works at you, to you, and through you. In the Eastern Catholic liturgy, after the consecration, the priest holds up the gifts and says “Through Him, With Him, and In Him.” That’s my vision of you in your new, deeper ministry. Working through God and with God, so that you might grow closer and closer to Him.

You are gifted in multi-dimensional ways, Michael, and I believe that God’s call on you now is to use your unique and diverse talents in advancing the lives of so many in your new ministry. And I believe that the intense need for ministry within the secular world has caused you to stay with your coaching, as you will touch many who will never enter a church.

As many ministers, priests, and clergy around the world wring their hands and bemoan our 21st century world and the afflictions that it has wrought on people everywhere, God needs talent that transcends, and commitment that communicates. He sees all that you have become and he uses all that you have.

In the economy of God, you are the perfect metaphor for supply and demand. In a vignette where something is demanded of you that you must dig deep to address, you muster the supply of advice or counsel that is necessary. In another scenario where you have had a breakthrough, you seek someone who demands help and use your gifts to share that experience and make a difference.

My wish for you is that the continuous blessing of God’s grace will always be forthcoming, and I feel that, for that to happen, you must continue to give it away to be replenished. You are where you are for a profound reason, and I hope that, despite your humility and introverted nature, you can see yourself as a true modern-day vessel and sustain yourself. Feed yourself so that you can feed your flock. Have the self-confidence and self-awareness to realize your gifts. See yourself in the same light in which God sees you.

As Henri Nowen said in “Thoughts to Ponder,” October 2007, "The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God's people out of slavery, through the dessert to a new land of freedom.”

God bless you and your work, Michael.