Words of My Life 8: Ezer

In ongoing celebration of my Jubilee year of 50 years in ministry and 70 years of life, I am sharing some of the words of my life. Who am I?  Why am I here?

What is my calling?

I am a woman.  Therefore I am an ezer.

Ezer. A helper.  A strong, courageous helper, standing beside, working with God’s sons and daughters. A warrior, even.  In the battle.  Fully prepared with spiritual armor.

Fighting with and for God’s people and His Kingdom.

God made me an ezer—and He made me exactly who and what He wanted me to be.

Personality, temperament, tendencies, aptitudes, strengths, weaknesses…He put it all together.

He said I’ve prepared a path for you.  Good works for you to do.  Kingdom building assignments.

My calling:  To love God and encourage people to trust Him to make them into the person He created them to be and to do all He made them to do.

To trust Him for the more He wants to do in and thru them.

To live that trust and to love those ones I encourage. If they don’t know Him, introduce them. If they do know Him, cast vision.

I have had some questions and suggestions for God, though.

Was it necessary to skip me when it came to music, art, strategic thinking, administration, organization?  Apparently.  Clearly lacking in each of these.

But He gave me my tool:  words.  I write them.  For decades I have written them. I speak them—to large gatherings, in small groups, in one-on-one conversations.

Words of faith and hope and courage.  Incendiary words—to start fires in hearts and minds.  Words from our Father, in the Son, by the Spirit.  Words of love and mercy and grace.

I don’t do it alone.

I stand with and partner with my husband to raise up another generation, to lead the ministry God has entrusted to us, to live out life in the Spirit.

I fall to my knees, battling for our children, the prodigals, our staff, a world in need.

I walk beside my sisters in Christ, an advocate for their freedom, opportunities, empowerment.

I knock on doors, open windows, make straight paths.  For justice and liberty.

I use my words.  I write.  I write the vision as God gives it.  I speak, I speak up and out and on behalf of those who haven’t yet found their voice.

I live in awe of a God who loves me, died for me, adopted me, called me.  That God who said, “Judy, woman of Mine, ezer, come be on my Kingdom-building team.”

Thank You, Lord.

What about you?  What is your calling?  Your gift?

C 2014 Judy Douglass