USGN Article - April 2005
Written by Terry Franklin

"It IS All About Him"

Don’t you hate it when God brings you down a few notches…and He uses you – in spite of yourself? Years ago, a very large church invited us to fly to their city and give a concert that they hoped would be an outreach to marriages and families. They put a lot of effort into promoting the event with radio and television advertisements, and major mail-outs to their community. They had sold tickets in advance and had even placed our names on a big marquee outside of the church. The crowd filled the seats, the lights were dimmed, and then the Master of Ceremonies gave a glowing introduction informing the crowd of how great we were. (You feel like something is about to happen, don’t you??)

There was only one dilemma: I was coming down with laryngitis and didn’t know how bad it was until we got up on stage and really began singing. As the first song progressed, I sounded like I was going through puberty again! We stumbled through another song, but by the third song, even the crowd was snickering at us. It was humiliating.

Struggling through the night unprepared for this, Barbi told a few stories of God’s provision and answers to prayer in our marriage and family, and we finished with a closing prayer after only 45 minutes, asking people to commit their families to God and come forward to pray. As we walked off stage, we immediately met the sponsor who was walking toward us. I figured he was upset and immediately said, “We’re so sorry. We’ll give you your money back – I didn’t realize I was so sick.”

But as we looked at him, tears were running down his cheeks. “Look!” he said. As we turned around, we saw the front of the auditorium jammed with people weeping before God. Marriages were healed and families rededicated themselves to the Lord that night. Later, the sponsor told us that they had never had God move in their church like that before.

We should have been ecstatic at what God did, but our pride was wounded. That evening was a reminder that God really didn’t need our talent. He is able to work through us… even when we are at our worst.

The truth is: When we really think we are doing terrible – by our standards – we might be making an incredible impact. But on the other hand – when we think we are hitting the ball out of the park….we might be striking out, as far as God’s Kingdom is concerned. It really IS all about Him!
 

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