An enormous shoe I filled. Hivenaija prompt #32.
Hello everyone, greetings!
Having responsibilities is something most kids are inculcated with from a tender age. As a Nigerian, I have had and heard my fair share of this word "responsibility".
"You need to look after your younger ones, you are the eldest".
"Stop acting childishly, set a good example for your siblings".
"You are the mother of the house when your mom is not around, so keep an eye on your siblings".
These and many more were what I heard continuously from the society, from as far back as I could remember.
Responsibilities are a good thing as it helps to settle the carefree nature and lifestyle of some persons. Sometimes in the family, division of labour makes responsibility quite interesting.
Growing up in a Christian home, I and my siblings were made to understand that being responsible and taking up certain responsibilities, makes one a devout Christian. The on us was on my shoulders more,as the eldest child of the family. There was no room to misbehave.
This helped to shape diligence and resilience in me. Today, I can handle several tasks without fear or weariness. It's been ingrained in me throughout the years.
Recently, in church, we were having a program that would run for about fourteen days straight. As a worker in church, I was expected to be in service fully throughout the duration of the program. It was held in the evening by 6pm and lasted for an hour if 7pm.
The program commenced and went on smoothly till the fourth day. That day was like every other day. I woke up, prepped myself for work while having it at the back of my mind that I would pertake in the evening service. Little did I know that something was bound to change.
Evening came and I arrived on time for the fellowship. I noticed that the pastor's seat was vacant which was quite unusual cos he was always thirty minutes on ground before the start of any fellowship. At five minutes to commencement, he had still not come, worry was already creeping on my face
"What could be the problem?" I thought to myself. Amidsty trying to get answers to my own self-scripted questions, a text message came on my phone.
Dearly beloved, please I will not be available for service, I might come in late. Kindly fill in for me and take charge of the service till I arrive, hopefully. Thank you remain blessed.
After reading the text, it was like someone poured cold water on me. I was transfixed out of sheer astonishment as I never thought that such a responsibility would be placed on my shoulders. Nevertheless, God's work must go on and that was exactly what happened.
**Was I afraid?""
Yes guys, I was scared and nervous. I kept thinking to myself..
What if I make a mistake? What if I an not charismatic enough? How do I start preaching, I am a teacher not a preacher now!
These thoughts were having free reign in my mind causing my mind to be jumbled up. I wished for once that I had come late to service so that I won't be responsible for filling the pastor's shoe but alas!, I could not change back time.
I summoned courage, mounted the pulpit and began to do what I know to do best.... teaching. I thought them on the book of Esther and how she encountered Favour with the king. Interestingly, everyone enjoyed the way I highlighted the story, pinpointing the key factors that led to Esther becoming queen.
At the end, I ended up using more than my allotted time and no one complained because they were all enjoying my rendition. At the close of service that day, my pastor had still not come and so I put a call through to him only to discover that he was at the general hospital.
What happened was that an elder of ours suffered a stroke and had to be rushed to the hospital. As there was no one around at the time, my pastor had to take it up on himself to assist him to the hospital. After hearing what occurred, I felt bad that I had initially wanted to reject filling his shoes but later I got over it because the service ended well.
All is well that ends well.
The elder has been treated and is fairing better now and my pastor has gone back to his line of duty but still I can't help to wonder how I pulled it off that particular day, it was nothing short of the grace of God.
I don't know if I would want to take up that responsibility in a hurry again but I now know that I won't be afraid again.
Thank you for reading.
All images used are mine.
Thank you
Responsibility makes us truly diligent and resilient, I am proud of how far you've come, and God will continue to strengthen you to shoulder your responsibilities rightly.
Thank you for your prayers, they are warmly received. God bless you sis, take care
Beautiful read. I smiled when I got to the part you used up your time but the didn't bother.
God strengthens his people and at that time you made yourself available for him to be strengthened to the glory of his name.
I love this 😊
That's a testament of God's grace and I'm so grateful for it.
Thank you so much for your lovely kind comments
Hi greetings,
It's what I call the "microphone ministry".🙂 I first heard this phrase from the mouth of an Elder in my Church. He was the head of the Sunday school dept, a very sound and annointed teacher of the Word, plus he spices it up with the sweet humour God blessed him with. He used that phrase to describe how a speaker in Church can unknowingly over-shoot time.
As for @beckyroyal, nice engaging story you put up here. A story that can edify too. Well, that's how it goes in these matters o. At least you know a bit of my history.
So as we work this His work, we often see that when you are down to nothing, Yahweh us up to something. Then we don't joke with the words the Lord told Apostle Paul – "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Those words are golden words for anyone who must prosper in the Lord's service. Great help you received from Jesus in this episode. Keep it up.
Cheers 🥂
Great and wonderful read! Sometimes, we're put into positions where we need to develop responsibility and lead by example. They say the first time is always the scariest, over time we get used to this new role.
I completely agree, after being put on the spot like that, I can fairly say that I've got the hang of things.
Thank you for your time and comment
That's the way of progress and eventually becoming great at responsibility and leadership roles.
You're most welcome!
👍
I can imagine how nervous you were when you read that message. But in the end, you delivered a wonderful sermon.
Nervous, very very. My legs were literally shaking, my palms were sweaty but I still did it because God's grace was enough
My dear, I had the same thing told to me almost daily growing up. Being the eldest and all. lol. You filled those shoes quite nicely and the experience, I’m sure, is one you’d never forget
Very true, I won't forget it in a hurry.
Thank you so much
When you are faced with some tasks, you prepare your feet almost immediately to fit into a bigger shoe. Unexpected leadership role like this would spur you up to explore your innate abilities.
That's right and I was spurred cos I never thought I would be able to pull it off but I did.
I appreciate your encouraging support
You are welcome.