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December 2004 Table of Contents
From My Heart To Yours
Serving God
By Jackie Evans, J&J Music
 This week is the week before Thanksgiving and also the time of year I can satisfy my need to cook. All year, I save up and spend the week prior to Thanksgiving preparing and freezing my dinner. After our kids left home, there was really no one around to cook for especially since Jerry and I are at an age where we don't need two meals a day much less three.
There is one group of guys I do cook for and that is the sky caps at the Mobile Airport. Years ago, when Jerry and I would have an early morning flight, I would bake a pan of muffins for us. After only eating three, I would bag up the remainder and take them to the airport with us for the skycaps. I must have let this slide for several months because one day, as we were checking our luggage, one of them casually said, “Mrs. Evans, when are you going to bring us some more muffins?” Thus began my routine of taking muffins, sausage biscuits, cake, cookies or whatever I had, to the guys. This also came to include the two shoe-shine guys for whom I had to throw in a few extra pieces because the girls in the gift shop would swarm on them to see what I had brought and beg a few pieces from them. The funny thing is that I love to cook but almost never get the opportunity. One day, one of the guys told me that they all had it figured out that I must have the most wonderful kitchen and must cook all the time. I laughed and told him that I cooked for them more than I did anyone else!
With the holidays approaching, I want my house to have a wonderful fragrance of food. I want people to walk in and immediately inhale the aroma of cookies and cakes baking and wonderful holiday food being prepared.
As I focus on cooking as a way of serving others, I think about Martha and how she must have loved to prepare for guests. This was her ministry. Her uniqueness given to her by God.
We have been going through the Purpose Driven Life at our church. This is the third time Jerry and I have been involved in this program but the first time we have been in town long enough to complete the course. I have been amazed at how simple my life could have been if I had only learned these lessons years ago. The most profound thing and the most simple thing that has come home to me is that we were all given a uniqueness that outfitted us for a special job God had planned for us. No one else could do the job God had for us as well as He planned for us because no one else has the exact same characteristics as God gave to us. It is up to us to take the skills God gave us and sharpen them to be the best at the job He planned for us. I think I spent most of my life wondering why God would put me in a music business when I have absolutely no musical talent at all. The best thing I do in choir is fill up a chair! But then I had to realize God called me to be a faithful member, not a soloist, where music is concerned.
I also learned how wonderful it is that we were made to praise God. After all, that's what we will be doing for eternity so we better get used to it here on earth.
None of us like pain; none of us like trouble but another thing I learned is that God allows pain in our life as a way of shaping and molding us and preparing us for our ministry He has for us. Through our painful experiences, God has given us a way in which we can help others go through same situations; we are not to waste our pain but use it to help others. Now that's a new way of looking at unpleasant things that come our way!
The last thing I want to mention is that we serve God by serving others. This really takes the focus off ourselves and forces us to look outward to find the needs of those around us. We need to constantly be looking to see who around us needs to be served. I know it is difficult to find time because most of you have all you can do to keep up with your worship responsibilities at church. But take a little time each week to seek out ways to serve others...
Now, get up and go bake a cake for someone (yes guys, I know you are good at cooking also!)
Grateful for His Faithfulness
Jackie
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