Ramblings on being a messenger

“Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger
greater than the one who sent him.” (Emphasis mine)
Jesus to his disciples, recorded in John 13:16

The Message is in the ___________________.

If you live in central Pennsylvania and listen to Christian radio, you easily fill in the blank with the word “Music.” I hear that phrase—The Message is in the Music—multiple times each day as I drive to and from my job with my radio tuned to FM 91.3, WGRC. That makes the radio station a messenger and those mysterious, invisible radio waves its chosen medium.

My sister, Taffy Spaloss, designs and constructs quilts which she calls Message Quilts. She explains, “Each quilt is birthed with either a person in mind, or a message that I want to express, or both. Each step of the quilt is then performed with that thought in mind. I get excited when the blocks are sewn together and I begin to see what the finished quilt will look like. And the delivery of that quilt is the grand finale, the delivery of the blessing to the one God desires to bless.” (Emphasis mine) My sister is a messenger and fabric is her chosen medium.

I don’t have to build a radio tower or sew a quilt to be a messenger. If I understand Jesus’ words correctly, I already am a messenger, even on those days I feel more like a mess than a messenger. If I’ve accepted the terms of John 13:13, calling Jesus “Teacher and Lord,” the messenger part logically follows.

(Sorry to keep repeating the word “messenger.” My writers critique group will be horrified.)

For me, sometimes the message has been in the puppetry or the lesson or the writing or the ukelele. In all of these, I have to be careful I’m delivering God's message and not just enjoying the media I’ve chosen to get it across. After all, teaching Bible to high school students is enjoyable (most days) and occasionally hilarious, and I’m easily entertained by the sound of my own voice. 

I occasionally joke about starting my own cult, but seriously, isn’t that how cults get started? By teachers enamored of their own voices and viewpoints and the admiration of their students? At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. it was frightening to see how Satan's message was delivered to the German nation by an evil, charismatic messenger.

As a messenger, I need to know God's message through and through and admit when I don’t. I need to know the Sender of the message and what media will best reach the intended recipients. Finally, I need to know when to get out of God's way.

            How about you? Which media do you use to deliver God’s message? I’d love to hear about it.

Taffy's Tree of Life Design
See her quilts at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MessageQuiltsbyTaffy