SOMETHING MORE

Just a few days ago, I was watching the 700 Club and they interviewed a survivor from the earthquake in Haiti. The man may have been around 40, but it was hard to tell because he was still very “beat up”. He had been trapped under ruble for a very long time and I’m sure many doctors never expected him to live. His left hand was in a cast with just his fingers sticking out, his head had taken a beating leaving his left eye unable to open, and his legs had been crushed and he was still in a hospital bed.

The thing that struck me about the man was that he was blind and a very accomplished concert violinist and he also played piano. He said that if God wants him to perform again, he will. Then my ears perked up when he insisted on saying that the reason he didn’t die was that “God still had something more He wanted him to do”.

As the show continued, they mentioned that Stevie Wonder heard about the man. Stevie was so inspired by the man’s faith in such trying times that he wanted to help him. The 700 Club went to Stevie’s home where he sang a song to the man using a beautiful keyboard he used in performing many Grammy Award songs. Then at that moment, men came in the studio and wrapped up the keyboard for shipment to Haiti.

The interview moved back to the hospital room on the day the keyboard was delivered. They told the man who it was from and he was very startled and insisted on getting in a chair so he could play something. He extended the finger tips of his left hand from the cast and played, “I Just Called to Say I Love You”.

I was moved as I could see God’s Hand in the man’s life. Stevie said that he will perform with him as soon as he is able to play the violin again. The doctors didn’t think he would ever play anything with that hand but when I saw those little bit of finger tips stick out from that cast and play that particular song, I said, “Doctors should quit talking in absolute’s”. I’ve said it before and that man said it as well, “There is nothing on Earth to stop you from doing something more when God wants you to do it”.

If I can find the story on the internet before it’s time to print this I will include it, but I haven’t found anything yet. I had to mention the story because it illustrated so well the idea that when God has something more He wants you to do, you will be around until you have done His will. It may be a small task, like being there for someone else having a personal crisis. There may be others around to help but He knows you are the right person for that task.

You may be called on for grander tasks such as joining the clergy or you may be the one to step up to start a charity after the next natural or man-made disaster. You might say, “God doesn’t work that way” or think that you could never do anything, but that is fear talking.

Ever since Genesis, people of all walks have been called to serve the Lord. You could say, He had “something more” they were to do. You could argue that you are not the type of person God would want to have doing His work, but I would bet that each one who was called to do something more gave the same argument.

Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you”.
Genesis 12:1

Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 3:10

That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here [am] I.
1 Samuel 3:4

Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, `Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Amos 7:14:15

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15:16

There are many more examples in the Bible of people from all walks of life doing something more than they ever thought possible, simply because the Lord told them to do that particular task. Today, people are afraid they will be labeled as some kind of a nut for thinking that God would waste His time talking to them. I just laugh at them and ask the Lord each day if there is something more I can do.

I hope I can find the story to include it in this issue, if for no other reason than to get the name of the man. He didn’t have the bewildered look on his face that is common among the rest of the faces I saw on the news during the aftermath of the quake. He had a very confident and comforted look about him; as though God was with him. I’m betting that Stevie Wonder does a concert with him someday after his hand is ready.

There will always be something more that needs to be done. Many are called but few answer. Fear is a big factor controlling our actions but faith in the Lord is a much bigger factor than any fear that may come our way.

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord [shall be] a light unto me.
Micah 7:8