By Janean
One thing the Lord has been working in my heart is the importance of responsibility. In a person’s life there are many areas where responsibility is a qualification. A schoolchild is responsible for making sure they complete their homework and hand it in on time. Responsibility in a teenager’s life increases with gaining a driver’s license. Many parents cringe, and their heart begins to beat harder when they hand the keys over to a new driver in the family. The thought that their child is now old enough to be legal to drive on the road is heart stopping. Teenagers then turn into young adult men and women with even more responsibility added to their everyday lives with a job, maybe some bills, and the continuation of their education. Then those adults get married and take on the responsibility of raising a family. The increase in responsibility continues to grow as an individual ages.
In a Christian’s life, a born-again (John 3:7) believer has a special kind of responsibility that is added to their life after they become a child of God. That responsibility is to live a life that’s pleasing to our Lord and glorifies Him. This event in someone’s life can happen at any time. No matter the age, a person’s Christian life is a process. It’s rooted with the understanding that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. Then as time passes, that individual grows in knowledge which strengthens their walk with the Lord. With this process and growth comes responsibility.
As we have said in other posts, we have seen the responsibility handed to us with the raising of our children, providing for the needs of our family, and being involved in church. Over the past few years, we have become discontented with how things are going in the church and in the workplace. “How are these things, that are so important to our lives, affecting us, our children, and our Christian testimony?” we thought. We began to pray together, for the Lord to do something in and through our lives. Once again, we handed our lives and future in His care, with the request that He show us a bigger purpose, His purpose.
With God answering our request came another dose of responsibility. We knew the workplace needed to change. In looking elsewhere, there has been red flags or things that just would not fit our family’s needs. God would not lead us to a job that would require us to go against a commandment in His Word. After Dave was officially let go from his job, I had a conversation with my mom. I told her that I am expecting God to do something magnificent! Shortly after that conversation, God brought us to our knees and allowed us to experience the most heartbreaking, darkest time of our lives, the loss of Hannah. That week in the hospital we have never been so close to God. He was with us all along the way. Every time we talked with a doctor, we felt His presence and embrace. He stood beside us as we wept by her bedside, and He continued to show us that He has a bigger purpose.
In the hospital, we began a Facebook page which ended up exploding into more. Connections with people from all around the world began. These connections have only increased over the past months. God’s bigger purpose! With this bigger purpose has brought on bigger responsibility. We are responsible for how we respond to this tragedy in our lives and how we use it for God’s glory. People all around us are watching us. Family, friends, people at church, our neighbors, even the people we have reached over Facebook are seeing our response.
It’s not easy knowing this! Some days, I just want to pull the covers over my head and shut out the world and life around me. There are days I ask God why? Why Hannah? Why us? Haven’t we been through enough? Why do I feel that, so few people care? How have people moved on so quickly?
Over the past week, God has given me a verse that keeps running through my head. It’s found in 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” Here lies more responsibility. We have been given a greater responsibility to be an example. Just like our Savior, Jesus Christ, was an example to us when He lived here on earth. We are to do the same by what we say, how we act, and how we conduct ourselves in front of believers and unbelievers. The rest of the chapter has more insight into how we should endure this responsibility. It ends with these challenges and a reward, “Till I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee…Practice these things; immerse yourself in them; so that all may see your progress. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” No matter our age, we all have the responsibility before God and others to do right.
We are blessed.
Hannah Helps 