It’s funny how quickly a phrase can go from a really bad pun
to an oft repeated mantra. It doesn’t even take a blog like the one you’re
reading right now for it to just happen. I guess sometimes all it takes is one
teenage kid and a piece of conduit pipe.
Terrence (the kid in question) and I were sitting in the
sanctuary at church on Saturday watching Dad crawl up and down ladders like a
spider monkey as he tried to finish getting the electrical back into shape for
church Sunday morning. Really, we were taking a forced break from cleaning up
construction debris because Dad was in our way. Then Dad suddenly needed some
wiring nuts, which he’d had a ton of, but knocked off the ladder during one of
his climbing adventures.
I got up, and Terrence followed. When I turned back around
after handing Dad the nuts, Terrence had a piece of conduit in hand. He
grinned, whipped it around for a few seconds, then said, “I conduit.”
I laughed. Bad puns like that always make me laugh (make a
mental note, future team members!). But when we got back to work, the phrase
came out again and again, and again. I conduit. I can duit. I can do it.
The past few days, I’ve questioned whether I can do the
World Race. Whether I’ll be ready to go when it’s time. I look at myself, and I
start to wonder – God, who am I to go? Why choose me? I’m not worthy to serve
you in such a capacity.
But as I put the questions into word form and think about
what “I conduit” has to do with this crazy adventure I’m embarking on, the
answers are already coming. I can do it because God will give me the strength.
And I am one of the people to go because God has called me to go. He’s chosen
me in spite of my unworthiness because if He hasn’t made me worthy already, then
He will make me worthy. I’m trying not to worry about being ready to go in the
actual act of going, because if there is one thing I’ve picked up from reading
the blogs of current races, it is that I won’t feel completely ready in that
sense. I conduit. I just have to trust that God knows what He’s doing in the
sending.
1 Timothy 1:12-16
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our
Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though
formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received
mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord
overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying
is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for
this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect
patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
