I have a particulate set of skills

“If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.” One of the greatest lines in cinematic history. Or st least one of my favorites. I think of it often because I don’t have all that many skills.

I spent half of my afternoon trying to put up closet doors in my basement. First, the instructions didn’t match the parts, secondly the doors were too long, and thirdly, I don’t have any particular skill when it comes to construction (and yes I put closet installation in the category of construction). Out with the instructions and onto YouTube (that may be my skill). I had to cut the doors (they were hollow, another youtube showed me how to fix that), figure out the hardware and glue everything together. I finished one side. I don’t want to start the other side until I see if I did an adequate job with the first side. I like working with my hands, and as long as the finished product doesn’t  come with guarantees, then I’m good. I  think the closet is going to work. Now on to the door to the furnace room, the new door is too long.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10.

It is a comfort to know that God is the master craftsmen. Looking at creation we can see the detail and creativity the runs throughout all of nature. His consistsncey and perfection is magnificent, and man, as much as he has tried, cannot duplicate it’s intricacies. However, His craftsmanship in us is not the physical body, but the character and purpose for which we have been created. Each of us is given good works in which we are to walk.

For sure, we have been given the task to share the gospel and see people come to know Christ, but that is just the beginning. We have a good work to accomplish, and the thing about good works is that they are for other people. Each day we are tasked with a good work that is uniquely ours. Visiting someone in a nursing home, watching someone’s children so they can have a break, opening the door for so someone, saying kind words to your spouse, or forgiving someone who has hurt you deeply. The exciting part is that we don’t know ahead of time what that good work is. Each day is an adventure, and we are to look for opportunities to do a good work, and be surprised at which one it is (it’s seldom the same).  

Our good works will often go unnoticed and unappreciated, but that’s ok. We don’t do them for the recognition, but for the glory of God. That’s the way it should be since he is the one who created us for those tasks. I’m just saying.