Staffed for Ministry: Have you been transformed to lead?

Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

—Exodus 4:2-3a

I have a staff. But I usually call it a walking stick. My friend fashioned it for me from an old tobacco stick.

Many Southern Maryland farmers used to grow tobacco, but twenty years ago they voluntarily accepted funds from Maryland’s Tobacco Buyout program, agreeing to give up tobacco production in lieu of an alternative. Since then, many have turned to produce, flowers, and agro-tourism. I applaud them for giving up the lucrative income of a harmful addictive substance and taking a risk to try something new. And I enjoy the results of their creative efforts—mazes of corn and sunflowers, pick-your-own patches, and petting zoos. I am also impressed with their resourcefulness in using leftover tobacco sticks. Once used for hanging tobacco plants in barns for curing, these sticks have been turned into stars, crosses, and walking sticks.

Stuck: How do we make the switch?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

—2 Corinthians 5:17

It was 1:35—for years. The hands of that old clock were stuck. It was time for a change. And Easter was the perfect season to make the switch.

I removed the clock from my living room wall and replaced it with a beautiful handcrafted cross. I received the cross in exchange for a donation to Teen Challenge, a program which “provides successful recovery for women, children, young men and families with destructive, abusive and addictive lifestyles through mentoring, education, training and spiritual direction.”

The wood for these crosses is handpicked from old, discarded horse fencing from the Teen Challenge Northern Virginia farm. Cut and stained by the students, the crosses are a reflection of what happens in their lives. They come into the program broken, but as a result of Christ’s work in their lives, they become new.

Is it time for a change in your life? Have you found yourself in a cycle of destructive behavior? Have you been repeating the same mistakes, going ‘round and ‘round again like the hands of a clock?

Cut It Out: How can we walk out God’s good plans when our foot is caught in a web of destruction?

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

—John 15:1-2

“Oh, no!” I gasped when I caught sight of my beloved lilac bush covered with webs. “The webworms are taking over,” I groaned. Already they had consumed my black walnut tree and another at the edge of the pasture. Why did they have to choose my lilac to chew on next?

Lilacs are special to me, a sweet reminder of my loving grandmother, who shared my childhood home. Her lilac bush graced the corner of our screened back porch and bloomed just once a year, in April, her birth month. I can still see the lavender-colored cuttings arranged in a Mason jar in the center of the kitchen table. The fragrant aroma filled the room like the presence of Grandmama's gentle spirit.

Now the insects had draped their deadly cloaks over my lilac bush, covering it from top to bottom, killing every green leaf and causing sadness to drape over me at the mere thought of my lilac never returning.

Was there anything I could do? The niggling thought plagued me each time I rounded the corner of my house. Nah, it’s hopeless, I returned.