Remember the story of the Little Red Hen?  She finds grains of wheat and asks her friends, the lazy dog, the sleepy cat, and the noisy duck, to help her plant these seeds.  However, no one is willing to help.  After the wheat matures and is ready for harvest, she again asks her companions on the farm to help her.  After hearing their excuses, she goes out and threshes the wheat by herself.  In order to make flour, she needs to take the wheat to the mill.  She would love to have her friends help her with this process, because she knows the work becomes a labor of fun when shared with friends.  However, they again are not available to help.  So off she goes, to the mill all by herself, grinds the wheat into flour, and then carries the heavy sack of flour back to the farm. 

Tired from her labors, she once again asks her friends if they would be willing to help her bake the bread.  The lazy dog, the sleepy cat, and the noisy duck again utter their excuses and with determination, she goes off and bakes the bread.  Can you smell the aroma of the bread baking in the oven?  Well, the animals smelled it too and when asked if they would have time to eat the bread they all responded "yes."  However, the little red hen firmly said "no," and she enjoyed the fruits of her labors with her brood of chicks.

Over the years of being a professional church worker, I have heard countless excuses on why projects are not completed on time, why an assignment given is just "too hard," or why not enough time was given to complete a responsibility.  I don't even have enough fingers and toes to keep track of the times students tried to blame their parents for not having an assignment completed!  They figured out real fast that I never would accept that one. 

We have opportunities as Christians before us that will strengthen God's kingdom.  We can either be the hen that gets things done, or the barn yard animals that come up with excuses.  And we can find lots of examples for not getting involved, such as the time, the language or culture barrier, or another commitment.  But friends, there is one area all of us can be involved in and that is to pray.  God is always opening doors, and prayer is the one method that we can use to know and understand His plan.  It is often very easy to be the one on the sidelines asking all of the "what if" questions that may or may not have answers, but sometimes the most difficult part is stepping outside our personal agendas and seeking God's wisdom and His will for where He would like us to go.  If the "what if" questions help others to see the entire picture, and the vision for the project, that's great.  But if the "what if" questions are only poised to frustrate and cause a halt to projects, then they can be a detriment to the church at large.   

The moral of the little red hen story is that if you are not willing to contribute to a project, you do not deserve to enjoy the end product.  How thankful I am that even though I may close the door on opportunities God has presented to me to share His plan of salvation, by grace I am still able to enjoy the reward at the end of my life on earth.  That doesn't mean, however, that I should constantly say no to God's assignment through lame excuses.

I ask that as the opportunities at Our Saviour present themselves, instead of immediately thinking of all of the "what if" questions that you would stop and pray.  Ask for God's guidance and direction.  What door is He holding open that He is hoping you have enough trust to walk through?  

Enjoying the ride,