Lately, I’ve been inspired by the devotionals given at work. Each week servers at The Grill (a restaurant at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale) are assigned a psalm, and we must come up with a 5 minute or so devotional sharing what God’s been doing in our life. This was mine last week:

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.

Psalm 22:1-2

How many times have we thought and believed this deep within our souls? Maybe it is that we are not getting what we want out of life at the moment or we are living times of suffering, but I think every single person at some point in their lives has felt God’s silence. When I say “every single person,” I would also like to include Jesus! (Mark 15:34) Needless to say, we’ve all felt at some season that God has, in fact, forsaken us. As popular as this verse is, what most people don’t do is read the whole chapter. Immediately in verse 3, David continues with one of the many identities of our God: “BUT You are Holy…” Then, as we keep reading, David randomly mentions at the end of verse 21: “You have answered me.” If we read the whole verse, however, David is asking God to save him from “the lion’s mouth” and the “horns of the wild oxen.” Then there’s a big pause, and that “You have answered me” sounds more like a very “as a matter of fact” or “and by the way, God answered me” statement. I find it amusing that last bit of verse 21 wasn’t another verse, but it is very much attached to David’s plea for help. God answers us, but there are a few things that might stop us from receiving his answer. The main block would be sin. I know mine was pride. What’s yours?

A few months ago, I kept asking God if I even had a purpose in life. Within Psalm 22, I found my answer:

But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.
I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God.

Psalm 22:9-10

This is when I realized, God had answered me even before I was born! My testimony starts at my mother’s womb, you see, according to the doctors I’m not even supposed to be alive! Before my mother was pregnant, she had suffered of a very rare disease called Stevens-Johnson and it was revealed that the cause was an allergy to medications that contained sulfates. During a period of the time when she was recovering, she started taking birth control… but that didn’t stop God from planting me in her womb. Doctors worried that due to her recovery, I wouldn’t come out, well, “normal” or that my rate of surviving the pregnancy would be low. They simply told her that I should be aborted to avoid any suffering. My mom decided she wanted to have me despite what they said because I would always be her “miracle child.” Verse 10 also reveals why I was born: God has been my God the moment He created me! He’s written my story, and probably has had to make a few edits since because of my times of stubbornness.

Being a server at a restaurant isn’t easy. The work can be tiresome and the demands can be great, but I know part of my purpose in life is to serve others. My nature is to serve myself first, but even Christ came to serve others. (Matthew 20:28) The King of Kings came to serve! Sometimes, I’ve doubted and rebelled against this revelation, but one of the most beautiful gifts in life is being able to help someone else, even when they refuse your help. Not everyone responds to a smile and friendly service, many times they respond sourly and they question what I do for a living. My favorite will always be: “Do you go to school? What grade are you in?” or “What do you want to do as a living?” Every time I was asked that, I would have a different answer. One day, I just said: “This IS what I do for a living. God has blessed me with the ability to serve you!” Needless to say, my response wasn’t received very well…

We are not any restaurant, it is ministry! Although many, even in the church, don’t see it, I do every single day. We encounter all kinds of people because we are a restaurant, we serve both churched and non-churched people. And sometimes you can’t see the difference, because they are simply people.

PS: Doctors were right about ONE thing… I’m NOT normal 😉