- Enter the Journeman

Enter the Journeyman

I have long thought of myself as a journeyman, one who was an instrument in the service of a higher Majesty.  You see I do not find within myself, any talent or ability that I can claim as my own.

A journeyman is one such concept.  He sticks around as a jack of all trades but a master of none.  Ready to do anything that is useful in the circle in which his life takes place.  Even in terms of the Mad Mad World I am simply a tool which the Master finds available, and who responds to my Master’s prompting.

This is not false humility.  I am all too aware of my personal limitations in fact that was a part, a big part, of the negotiations that lead up to the starting of the blog.  I knew that I was a dry well as soon as I thought about me writing.  And the deal that I put up to Father was that He was to be my source of inspiration, which was to include the way the words flowed onto the page.

In myself I am only capable of stringing about 150 words together before I run out of what I want to say and I cannot for the life of me return to those 150 words to continue at a later date: it is just not in my make-up any more.  God performed a miracle every day with His Mad Mad World for months when He gave me the words for that daily blog.  Even now, when the blogs are less frequent, they are still His words

We can all trust Him when He gives us an endeavour for Him; His promises are true, even for a work like the one He gave me.  I do not know what the words that I publish are accomplishing; that is not my concern.  I can rest assured that if I have done what He bids me do that His words “will not return to Him void”. 

I rather suspect that Paul of Tarsus was a journeyman in the way that he wrote and lived a life that ultimately lead to his death at the hands of the Roman Caesar but he went down that track resolutely, so that he could eventually minister to the believers in Rome.  It may have been a restricted ministry but he had a roof over his head and meals provided while the believers were free to come to him.

There is I believe a pool of believers for whom the concept of the journeyman may give a comfort or a focus to their lives.  There are many who have defined positions of leadership or function within the community of faith and those who have distinct identifiable talents or gifts it is true but there are more who have not found the distinct talents in their  own lives.  By trusting the Master for the distinct activity in their life and living true to Him; the Lord will provide for us all.

It is not given to all of us to sit in authority nor to be the master of a banquet hall but Jesus, the master, has a position for each of us and that position is all that we need.  The unbelieving will see us being faithful in the least of position and will be attracted to the Master by the way that we live out the place that we have been given in joy and submission; thus many will be introduced to Him.

Let us live for the King of Kings in the certainty that we are His ambassadors to those around us.