Picture of Fran in 1982 at a 1st Baptist Church Manvel party
Walking In Someone Else's Shoes By Frances M. McCrory-Meservy October 1981-December 1981
We joined First Baptist Church in Manvel. It was across the street from our new home. We could walk to church if we so desired. We did on occasion and our children did all the time unless there was bad weather.
The fine folks there were friendly and we felt like we were home.
The choir director talked me into singing (making a joyful noise) in the Alto section of the choir.
Our pastor found out I had worked for a newspaper and asked me to give news releases to the local newspapers. I agreed to do that.
There were books everywhere in little piles in an old office that were donated to a future church library. No one knew how to do that. I had worked part time in the High School library for 4 years and knew how to do it. I volunteered.
The Act Teens (part of the missionary arm of the church) director/teacher moved so I volunteered to take care of that job.
The pastor asked me to teach the adult couples Training Union class for a quarter and I accepted.
I joined the WMU (Women’s Missionary Union) they asked me to become the Mission’s Outreach Leader. I agreed to do that.
Al was preaching one day a month at the nursing home and talked me into helping him there. He was also preaching one day a month at the camp ground and asked me to go with him there.
Along with taking care of two teens and our home, I ended up with a lot of jobs at church.
This was also during part of the time that I was a 700 Club prayer counselor for 4 hours a day 3 days a week.
Can you tell I had a problem saying no? I always felt bad when I said no to anyone and especially someone I loved. I loved my church family.
Before Christmas in 1981, right after Sunday morning services, God told me to give up the choir, the library, Acteens, Nursing Home Ministry and Camp Ground Ministry. He had not called me to do these jobs and I was stealing someone else’s blessing. He had called someone else to do those jobs.
At the evening services I asked our pastor if I could speak to the congregation. I told my church family what God had shown me. I asked that the person who was called to replace me to please stand up as I named off the job I was told to give up.
Someone stood up for each job. God is so good. I was left with member of WMU/Missions director, Adult Training Union Teacher, Public Relations for the Church and 700 Club prayer counselor.
God showed me that it is OK to say no if He did not call me to do something. In fact if we do something God did not call us to do, we are filling someone else’s shoes. The person who is called feels confused because the job they are called to do is not open.
There is no shame or guilt in not doing something God did not call me to do. In fact I feel overloaded when doing a job I am not called to do; but feel joyful when doing a job I am called to do.
Ninety-nine percent of the time God called me in accordance with the gifts He gave me.
One exception to that rule was Adult Training Union Teacher. I do not have a gift to teach and usually find it frustrating. Our pastor asked me to teach the Adult Training Union class for one quarter because it was about marriage and more a counseling thing than teaching.
Later I was asked to teach the youth (6th grade-12th grade) basic Bible doctrine in Vacation Bible School. These were the only times I felt lead to teach.
If God does not call someone and supply the means to do a certain job, it usually indicates the job is not God’s idea.
Isa 41:4 Who has performed and done it, Calling the generations from the beginning? 'I, the LORD, am the first; and with the last I am He.'"
1 Cor 1:26-29 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
1 Cor 7:20 Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.
Eph 4:1-16 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." (Now this, "He ascended"; what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ; from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
2 Th 1:11-12 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Tim 1:8-11 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.