"Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that should come after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool." -- Eclesiastes 2:18-19"

I have been replaced. Shiloh Baptist Church called a new pastor back in January, and I sure didn’t expect to feel about it the way I initially felt. With complete respect and appreciation for the new pastor, entrusting them to another man was like handing a Stratavarius violin to an Orangutan. That’s what my father-in-law thought when he gave away his only daughter. After spending nearly nine years loving, preaching to, caring for, aggravating and frustrating these people, someone else is going to be their ‘pester’."

I’ve never experienced a passion for "leaving my mark", however, I couldn’t escape the question, "What did I accomplish?" The landscape is marred with more concrete and carpet than when I arrived there, but some guy built a new gas station and then left too. I have always viewed this "desire to leave a mark" as nothing more arrogant pride, but quite honestly after Shiloh replaced me, I felt a great deal of arrogant pride. What if they don’t keep things the way I had them? What if the new pastor doesn’t lead them in the direction I think they should go? The fact is they won’t, he won’t, and in all truth they shouldn’t and neither should he. "

If God wanted things run the way I’d run them, He wouldn’t have run me somewhere else. We very often fail to see that God not only gives us a place, and purpose, but a period. He has a beginning and an ending for our place and purpose. The time in between is only as long as He allows, and with the degree and quality that He allows. He may give us a lifetime, a good time, or a hard time. Our period may be brief, long, or in the middle, but the fact is that our torch is going to be passed, and we have no say as to who it’s passed to. They may look and live just like Jesus, they may look and live just like Jethro, but the truth of the matter is that our successors are not up to us, because we don’t own the company."We only have so long in our place, responding to our purpose, and then someone else gets a turn. Someone else is going to live in your house some day, or tear it down. Someone else will have your ministry some day. The point is that everything including you is temporary, and as Solomon said, therefore "invaluable." Only those people and things found "in Christ" hold any permanent presence. We have to learn to embrace our place and purpose, but hold loosely our period."

I don’t know where God is using you or what He is using you for but there is going to come a day, and it may be your funeral, that He is going to stop using you in the same capacity. Your influence may outlast you or outlive you by default or design, but the ability and authority of your "will" will end. The only "time" you can do what you can do, is now, and you are the only person who can do what you can do, are you doing it? "

Your period is now, your place is here, and your purpose is Him, anything else is vanity and vexation of spirit (chasing the wind.) You don’t know who will pick up your torch, so you had better use it for Him while it’s still yours. God has given it to you, but only for now, someone else is next."

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