Mordecai Ham: the name of a man that most people don’t associate. I remember reading his name in a book once, and upon reading it, realized that if my life played out the same as Mordecai Ham’s, then I would consider myself blessed.
Most people gauge success on numbers, figures and statistics. Whatever an individual can yield shows the true success of the individual. This seems to be the same in the realm of the church. Mega church pastors are the ones usually coveted, heavily followed and admired, whereas the small town pastors are sometimes seen as black sheep and less significant.
Pastor Jeff Leake spoke at one of our retreats last month, and he said something that really caught my attention. He said that, “ministry is not about what you do, but what you set in motion.” Pastor Jeff then went on to compare this idea to that of Barnabas, who raised and discipled an individual such as Saul, pouring into him and helping him to be the great missionary to the Gentiles. Barnabas didn’t know that this would be Paul’s ministry. Likewise, sometimes things that seem incredibly insignificant in this world might yield indescribable profits in the next. I think this is something that Jeff realized, Barnabas realized, and Mordecai realized.
I read Mordecai’s name for the first time in the autobiography of Billy Graham. Reverend Graham writes with vivid clarity the night in which he got saved. I remember reading as this great man describes going to a tent-revival service led by Ham in North Carolina, 1934. Mordecai Ham did not know that that night he would be leading to Christ the greatest known evangelist of not only the 20th century, but potentially the millennium! I think that is something we need to realize too. Sometimes we might not be successful in the eyes of the world, but we could be setting in motion something that will change the universe. Are you willing to be a Mordecai Ham?
“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”
-Emily Dickinson
BOBERT HILL 