I WAS a conference president. Pastor Trueblue had dropped by for a chat about some problems in his district. We closed our visit with prayer, and as he was leaving I put my arm around him.
"You know, Russ," I began, "you have been doing a good job as a district pas tor. Your members are happy. Your church is out of debt. You always reach your Ingathering goal and you baptize ten to fifteen candidates a year."
We paused a moment as I put my hand on the door. Looking straight at him, I continued, "Russ, I believe God wants to do greater things through you. I believe you ought to be baptizing fifty souls a year instead of fifteen!"
Pastor Trueblue looked at me in hurt surprise. I couldn't have stunned him more had I struck him with a hammer. He stammered something about a visit he had to make before lunch and quickly departed.
Two weeks passed. There was a knock at my door and Pastor Trueblue slipped into my office. After a cheery greeting his face grew sober.
"I have been thinking seriously about what you said to me the last time I was here," he began thoughtfully. "I believe you are right. I haven't been measuring up to God's expectations. I should be doing much more than I am doing. I believe, with God's help, I can baptize fifty persons a year instead of fifteen."
Several years passed. My wife and I were home from the mission field and we were visiting churches in our former conference, among them the large city church shepherded by Pastor Trueblue.
As we stood chatting the pastor put his hand on my shoulder. "Do you re member our visit in your office before you left for Africa? You challenged me to win fifty souls a year instead of fifteen! At first I was stunned by your suggestion. I was not sure whether you were displeased with me or just what you had in mind.
"As I prayed over the matter I realized that truly I was not measuring up to my God-given potential. I accepted your challenge. It took me a couple of years to reach the fifty, but now with His help I'm there. Thanks so much for your confidence—and for lifting my sights!"
Many of us need to lift our sights. We are idling along on a half or a third of our God-given potential. These words sum it up succinctly: "Many whom God has qualified to do excellent work accomplish very little, because they at tempt little." —Christ's Object Lessons, p. 331.
The whitening harvest should arouse us to greater deeds for Heaven. "There are thousands of places to be entered where the standard of truth has never been raised. ... If you will lift up your eyes, you will see the harvest ripe, ready for the sickle, whichever way you may look; you will find work close by and far off." —Christian Service, pp. 179, 180.
I once heard a quotation from Dr. Frank Laubach that stirred my soul. I keep it where I can read it often: "'Heaven trembles lest we may prove too small, our deeds too small and too late, lest we be bound by our weak habits when God summons us to great deeds. . . . I'm afraid of some . . . who have neither fire nor vision . . . who be gin to see why this might be hard, or unprecedented, or premature if not properly surveyed, or too informal, or too big. The put-on-the-brakes type, the go-slow type . . . can ruin God's program. O ye of little faith, keep your foot off the brake. . . . Who ever heard of God holding us back? He is impatient. He weeps over us as He did over Jerusalem. We have nothing to fear but fear; we shall not fail when God is pushing us. I tell you what we need to fear, fear the way we are now, for we aren't good enough, hot enough, high enough, daring enough, far-visioned enough, for this splendid hour.'" —Quoted in R. A. Anderson, The Shepherd-Evangelist, pp. 652, 653.
Are you measuring up? If not, ask God, through His Holy Spirit, to give you a new glimpse of Jesus and to help you lift your sights. Be a Pastor Trueblue. Really do it—now!
