M OSES CRINGED every time a whip cracked against a trembling Hebrew slave’s back. Growing up in the house of Pharaoh’s daughter, he never knew the cruelty of the slave drivers, but he was tormented inside. Why did his people have to suffer so much?
A botched attempt at revenge on a slave driver sent him running for his life, and he ended up tending livestock on the back side of the desert. One question
haunted him continually: “God, why don’t You help them?”
Finally God said to Moses, via the burning bush, “Why don’t you deliver them, Moses?” But Moses wasn’t eager to be a part of that plan.
Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”...
lu What if they will not believe me, or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”
2 And the Lord said to him, u What is that in your hand ?”
Exodus 3:11, 4:1-2, italics added
Some people, like Moses, see a need and ask, “What do I have to offer in the face of such a challenge?” These people do nothing. But God said to Moses: “Look at what you have in your hand right now. You can take what you have and use it to meet the need — if you let Me help you.”
The key to greatness is seeing the need and letting God use what is in your hand. There has been no better example of this to me than my own mother.
The BARNETTS CAME FROM a strong and sturdy stock of old-fashioned Pentecostals and hard-shelled Baptists. Dad’s mother was proud that she was a first cousin to President Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith Boling Galt. Mrs. Galt had been the widow of a Washington, D.C., jeweler when she and the president married following the death of his first wife. Later, when Wilson was struck down by a debilitating stroke, Edith “ran the government,” guiding the ailing president’s hand as he signed official documents.
Dad had inherited all the grit and gumption from the
Barnetts and used these well during his long and prosperous ministry. My mother’s fine family hailed from England. Her grandfather had been the pastor of a large and historic Presbyterian church. Mom’s life was all joy, just like her name, until her adored father died of double pneumonia when she was just eleven years old. From that day until she met and married my dad, she felt cheated because such a huge part of her life was grabbed away. To make matters worse, Mom was shunted off to a Bible school by her new stepfather who wanted her out of the way. While the pain of this rejection was intense and the sorrow deep, it was at that school she met my dad.
Enid, Oklahoma, sits glumly in the middle of the great Red Beds Plains that extend from Kansas to Texas. Here the soft red sandstone and shale lie shallow under the grassy soil. And it was here, at Southwestern Bible School, that love and destiny awaited young Hershel Barnett and lovely Joy Patten.
On the special day that Mom and Dad met, the boys of the Bible school were playing baseball while the girls strolled over the tiny campus of the struggling institution. The rules of this “holiness” Bible school were so strict that the faculty forbade any contact between the sexes. Boys and girls were even instructed to walk in opposite directions and could only speak while passing. They were severely reprimanded if they stopped to talk, much less date or hold hands.
Then it happened.
Suddenly a baseball smashed across the playing field onto the sidewalk and slammed into a pretty young girl. The ball struck so sharply that she doubled over with pain and crumpled onto the sidewalk. The ball hit the precise location where a still tender incision from an appendectomy was healing slowly. Girlfriends hovered over the fallen girl, and a young, handsome ball player dashed off the field to help.
Their eyes met.
Love was born in that moment.
Both Hershel and Joy knew — and both would express later — that something fateful and wonderful had happened in that first brief encounter. The boy walked away in a daze after making sure she was OK. He told his buddies, “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.” Later on he learned she left saying to her girlfriends, “That’s the man I’m going to marry.” The pain from the baseball soon faded, but the memory of that special encounter lingered.
Romance had little chance to blossom under the sharp eyes of the fussy faculty. Students were told young preachers must prioritize their Bs. First, they must get their books, then a Buick and finally a bride. If they ever got these out of order, there would be trouble, so said the older and “wiser” heads.
That first year after their brief encounter Hershel and Joy had little chance to speak to each other, but both harbored a secret inside: “This is the person I will marry.” That awesome, unspoken awareness never left, even though there were the usual teenage fleeting flirtations and fantasies with others. And, in spite of the strict Bible school rules, young men and women will still be young men and women. There are always creative ways to communicate and circumvent unreasonable laws when a couple is in love. These Bible school kids had discovered such a way.
One day as the girls marched into the dining room, Joy felt a hand reach over her shoulder to take her fancy handkerchief. The drab school uniforms permitted only one accessory, and that was a fancy handkerchief fluffed out of the blouse pocket. Hershel grinned sheepishly and neatly tucked the feminine handkerchief into his own jacket pocket, arranging the tatted edges so they would show. This “mating rite” was commonly recognized among the students at the strict school. It meant Joy was now his girl if she did not grab the handkerchief back.
She did not.
The one time that afforded an approved way to talk to the opposite sex was at meals. The boys and girls had the luxury of sitting at the same tables, though the assigned seating arrangements were changed monthly. This gave the two young lovers opportunities to get to know each other and spend time conversing. They would make the most of each meal together, lingering so long that they drew disapproving glances from the faculty.
By the time graduation came, Hershel and Joy had grown strong in their commitment to each other even though they had not had the opportunity to date. As school closed, Joy wrote her first poem:
After I think and think of you,
Wondering just how or what to do,
To make our love a lasting song,
One that will last for years to come,
Something whispers softly to me,
“God is the Author of things to be.”
Summer came, and school was finally out. Joy reluctantly returned home to Ponca City, Oklahoma, while Texan Barnett went back to Electra. The two kept in touch by letter, with Joy writing at the bottom, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Ps. 37:4, KJV). She admits, “I was hoping, of course, I was that desire.”
She was.
On March 21, 1935, Hershel Barnett and Joy Patten were married.
Through the years Dad and Mom made a powerful team. There were many successes and some failures, but this dynamic duo always plunged ahead — innovating, invigorating and inciting passion for God wherever they went. It was in a little town in Texas that my mother discovered the positive power of pain.
The young evangelist and his new wife were seeing
phenomenal results. Crowds jammed the little church. Many souls were being saved and blessed. On the last night of this great meeting, the district superintendent of the Assemblies of God and the presbyter of the local section came calling. These were the men who had the power and influence to open and close doors for a young evangelist.
The word got around that Hershel Barnett was a rising star in the evangelistic circuit. Naturally, the church leaders were curious, so they came to see for themselves.
After a fantastic final service, Mom slipped across the street to the parsonage while Dad continued praying and talking with the people. There was no air conditioning in those days, so she opened her window to the warm Texas night and started to settle into sleep when faint, but familiar, voices filtered into her room. The district superintendent and the presbyter were talking about what they had witnessed that night and about the rising young evangelist.
“Well, what did you think about him?” the presbyter asked, alluding to young Hershel Barnett.
“He’s a good preacher,” the official noted. “I believe he can go far.”
“But,” interjected the presbyter, “what will he ever do with that wife of his? She can’t even play the guitar or sing. She can’t do anything. She will hurt his ministry.”
Those cold, condemning words stabbed my mother’s young and tender heart. She sobbed into the pillow, fearful that the leaders were right. She would be a drag on Hershel’s ministry because she was so shy and “untalented.” She felt she had been selfish in wanting Dad so much, and if he had only chosen a more gifted wife, he could reach his potential. The overheard conversation had shaken her to the soul, letting loose all the normal misgivings of a young bride. When my father came to bed, Mom pretended to be asleep so he would not know her hurt or see her crying.
Joy Barnett understood the ministry to which God had called her. She was also aware of her own inadequacies. She was in many ways like Moses when God spoke to him out of a burning bush. Moses was told about the promise to give them the land of Canaan and that he was going to be the one to deliver them.
Questions were running through Moses’ mind: Who, me? Why me? I can’t do it!
That’s when God asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
Completely confused, Moses replied, “A staff,” probably thinking to himself, The only thing I can deliver from Egypt with this is sheep (Ex. 4:2).
But the staff of Moses, a simple shepherd’s stick, became the staff of God. With it Moses performed miracles before Pharaoh, turned the waters of the Nile into blood and brought forth frogs, gnats, locusts, thunder and hail upon the land of Egypt. He lifted up the staff and stretched it over the Red Sea, and it parted. He struck the rock at Meribah (see Ex. 17), and water flowed out.
God can take our limited abilities and use them for great purposes. The key is offering up those abilities, feeble as they may be, to God. Then that insignificant thing in our hand becomes the staff of God.
Mom did not sleep much that night. But when dawn came she had made a decision. She would not give up in defeat. She would not prove those men right. From the pain she felt, a righteous anger and determination rose. Like Moses she seemed to hear God say, “What is that in your hand?”
Joy Patten Barnett searched her soul and took inventory of her potentials. Although she was too shy to stand before an audience, she decided she could write scripts and produce pageants, plays and skits. She could design costumes, paint backdrops, organize drama. The ideas kept coming.
She would take music lessons. She would do everything she could to polish what little she had and become an
asset to her husband rather than a liability.
It was as if God said to her, “Joy, what is that in your hand?” The first thing the two Old Testament widows had to do was recognize the miracle that was already in their houses. For Mom she had to recognize the staff in her hand.
Neither the widows’ provisions, the staff of Moses nor Mom’s talent amounted to much in themselves. But God’s plan was to use what they had.
The pain of that warm Texas night changed and challenged my dear mother. She refused to cave in to the negative expectations of others and determined to be the very best. And, in my opinion, she became just that.
Mom developed into one of the most dynamic of pastors’ wives, pioneering pageants and dramatic productions in churches. Her original plays were performed nationally, and she became a highly sought-after speaker. People came to her and called her from all over the world for her counsel.
Years later those who saw and knew my mother would have been shocked that anyone would have uttered such cruelties that painful night so long ago.
I am learning to make troubles my servant. I am also learning to see situations that challenge my ability as opportunities to see God empower my feeble efforts. God doesn’t allow us to be tempted beyond that which we are able. Neither does He challenge us without supplying His help.
Look at what Paul learned through facing insurmountable obstacles with limited ability:
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
God often picks for a job a person who lacks the ability to accomplish it. One of the prerequisites of tapping into God’s grace and power is the realization of your own inability. James wrote,
BUT He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says,
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6
We receive grace to accomplish great things through God’s power in the same way we receive grace for salvation. In order to be saved, a person must first humble himself and admit that he has no ability to save himself. Then he receives the grace for salvation.
When you realize that by your ability you can’t accomplish the task God has placed before you, you are only one step away from finding that through His power you can do all things. As we grow in faith we learn to look to God for His grace and not to our own abilities.
Many times God will use needs to show you both His power and part of His plan for your life. I often tell people, “If you don’t know what to do, find the need and fill it. And if you don’t think you have the ability, just trust God, use what you have and do what you can.”
We NEEDED SOMEONE TO work the wheelchair ministry. We had about thirty people to whom we were reaching out. Sharon Henning had been helping, so I asked her to take over for a few weeks until we found someone else. I was amazed to find that she started bringing twice as many people as we had before. Nevertheless, at the end of a few weeks she came to me and said, “I don’t feel God’s called me to this. Please hurry up and find someone else to take over.”
I told her that I understood how she felt, but because the need was there and she was having such success, I
wanted her to continue for a little while until I got someone.
That ministry grew to the point that on one Sunday at church she had four hundred people who were in wheelchairs or were disabled.
Finally she came to me and said, “Pastor, I’ve got to take that back. I feel that God has called me to do this.”
Today Sharon Henning is a wonderful ambassador for Christ and one of the greatest Christian workers I have ever seen do anything. It began with a need, and she took what she had in her hand to meet it. Before that Sharon had not established any great ministry nor commanded a great following. She was not a dynamic speaker but simply had a heart for hurting people and a real love for God.
You can take a job nobody else wants and make it so great that they’ll have to hire you because they won’t be able to do without it. That’s how most people came to be on my staff.
Now Sharon Henning is a part of our church’s paid staff and has become the leading authority in the city — and maybe in the world — on reaching hurting people in wheelchairs. At our last Fourth of July rally she brought over eight hundred people to church. Even though she is scared to death to stand up and speak, Sharon receives invitations to speak from all over the nation.
Trouble can be a stumbling block, or it can become your servant and be a stepping stone. The same is true when you face insurmountable obstacles and feel totally inadequate. It is the chance of a lifetime. Whether they are forced upon you or you simply accept the challenge to meet a need, you’ll discover how God can use the gifts and talents you possess when they are placed at His disposal. So troubles and need bring out the best in you, and when the best of you is brought out, you discover the special talent God has planted in you.
Most of us would jump at the chance to have a burning bush or Damascus road experience with God. But if you
get that close to God, He might just say something like “Go and deliver My people from Pharaoh’s hand” or “I have called you as an apostle to the gentiles.”
God takes no account of your abilities or lack thereof. He only sees your possibilities. What He looks for is people who are willing to accept the challenge to meet the need.
When faced with desperate needs and overwhelming challenges, look to God and ask Him to help you see if the seed of your miracle is already in your hand. When you recognize it, offer it to God in faith that the works of God would be displayed through you.
FIVE