In my life I can pinpoint a time when things started to turn around for me.. I was at Christian Fellowship Church in Steinbach, when in my mid twenties, someone asked me to volunteer with the Multimedia team. I became quite involved with the Sunday presentations – we used Media Shout as our primary software.

Eventually we moved to Blumenort and started attending the Blumenort Community Church, I started doing the multimedia there with Powerpoint and then we moved to ProPresenter. Now I’ve moved to the area of streaming live services to Youtube.

One might think that volunteering is just me providing a service and giving my time to the church, and that’s true; however I got just as much back, if not more. I learned patience, timing, memory, discipline, dedication, and more. I also got more experienced with software, and computers – I was already doing network administration for a ton of computers and networks and this just provided even more of an edge. But I also learned humility – no matter how much I succeeded professionally – I approached the position at church as a servant, and made myself as low as possible – not just to get a blessing but no matter how capable or important I may become, I consider others better than myself. That isn’t a line, by submitting to them, I mirror Jesus’s heart on the matter.

I believe that when God calls you into service, you need to listen. No matter what I did, I feel like I could have served better or done more, etc. – but I answered the call, and after than (or before) – we need to be in a place in our lives where we can be called, where we can contribute. It also means that we are not so focused on ourselves – when I have a duty or responsibility to perform, I care way less about me, in fact I don’t matter at all, I am wholly focused on achieving what God has put before me. When it comes to being faithful – I don’t do a half job, I don’t put out anything less than my best effort because I’m not doing it for me, I’m doing it for God.

And what are God’s expectation on those matters? Some people say God doesn’t really speak to us or make himself known to them – I call bologna on that noise. If you look at the book of Numbers especially before chapter 15 – God is very specific about what he wants… People play games with God – on Facebook, people make smart remarks about “why would God ask this or do this”.. its about not just the specifics of what God said.. it takes minimal effort to read between the lines. God’s heart on the matter is that you give him your best, the top shelf of your effort, if it’s food – its the best food, if its time, its your most precious time – God doesn’t want your leftovers.

If you look into the first murder in the bible, one could say that its because Cain worshipped God on his (Cains) own terms, and that’s true. But if you dig a little deeper – you will see that it’s not jealousy either, sure Cain was jealous – by why was he jealous? Cain gave a half effort – that is what drove the first murder by another human in history… had Cain gave equal effort in his offering, there would have been nothing to be jealous about.

Looking back I am so grateful that God used me to achieve things for his glory. I am blessed to be able to contribute, instead of looking at it like an obligation – we should look at it as a privilege, because that is what it truly is.

Jason