All you are, is all God needs’

March 19, 2023

Scriptures: 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Ephesians 5:8-14

Surely we have all heard the expression, you need to ‘Put your best foot forward’. It is what is called an idiomatic expression or phrase. In looking up the meaning of ‘put your best foot forward’, I was surprised to find it first referenced in a poem by the English poet Sir Thomas Overbury in 1613.  There are several meanings listed in the dictionary, but all are somewhat similar ranging from:  ‘to do something as well as you can’, or to ‘act in a way that causes other people to have a good opinion of you’, or lastly, to ‘embark on a journey or task with purpose and enthusiasm’. And it is this last one that I would like you to remember as we look at how it is that we might ‘put our best foot forward’.

And the first question I would ask then is, what is it that best describes your life?  Seriously, when you first wake in the morning, is your first thought’ ‘hey, this is a new day…a chance of a lifetime, there are all sorts of possibilities before me…I just need to get up and go for it…here I come’! Or, is it more like…‘Oh, is it morning already? Maybe if I lie still I won’t feel the stiffness from yesterday for a minute, before it’s time to get up and kick it into auto-pilot…with a shower, coffee, light breakfast, walk the dog, head off to another day at a dreary, repetitive job…

Which one is it?  I know I have been guilty of the latter a number of times. Especially when I forget how grateful I should be upon waking up and realizing I have been given the gift of another day to do my best to live into whatever it is that God is asking of me. Whenever I neglect to start out being grateful, I am not exactly putting my best foot forward for sure!

But…what really is your life?  What is it that drives you…what is it that gives you a reason to get up and go? What is it that is behind all that you do? What are the guiding principles, or the deep-in-your-soul-meanings that make you who you are, and govern what you do…that make you, you?

I think there are probably many, many answers to this question…almost as many varieties as there are people I suppose. But at heart I think there are actually just a few reasons underlying most people’s lives, just a couple of things that give purpose and meaning to their lives. They may be things such as a family, or a job, being successful, or healthy, or having good friends, or perhaps doing your best at whatever you put your mind to. Or perhaps it’s a combination of several of these.

I think, that for each one of you here, there is an even more deep-seated reason governing who you are and why you do what you do. And that is a desire, however deep-seated within, to somehow please God.  Somehow, in some way, I believe that our faith informs all of the rest of what we end up doing. Maybe without us even knowing it. Maybe the real underlying reason beneath all that we do or think, is our relationship with God.

Let’s start over…say you wake up, and it is not an ordinary day at all. For today is the big day. Perhaps the first day at a new job, or just a day you have long looked forward to. So, how do you get ready? How are you going to dress, what will you wear?  Or if it is a new job, do you have all that you will need to make this day a success?  Do you have the resources and tools required to do the job, and to do it to the best of your abilities?

Or what if this big day is a day you have determined to spend in service of the Lord? With what would you come before the Lord on a day such as this? How would you ‘put your best foot forward’ when it comes to serving the Lord? Wait a minute…what is your best for God?  How does God want us to present ourselves, how much time would we spend trying to get ready to give ourselves to God?

Knowing full well of course, that God loves each and every one of us fully and completely, how would we prepare ourselves for God? What do we need to bring with us, what gifts or talents, what is it about us that we feel will be pleasing to God…or be of some use to God? How would we prepare for that? Would it be any different than the way we prepare for anything else? Would we get all dressed up in our finest clothes, and spend hours making ourselves look the best we can? Would we pull out and polish up our best gifts and talents, tune them up and make them really shine? Of course, all the while hiding those ‘other things’ that we may not be so proud of, or those things we don’t think we do very well? Perhaps especially those things that seem to frustrate us…things that God is probably working on in our lives even now?

How do we put our best foot forward for God?  First, we need to show up! We need to have a life purpose, a central meaning to our lives that is founded upon a deep love of our Lord, and a sincere desire to please God in all of our doings.  Second, we need to realize that sometimes God’s view or God’s ‘vision’ may be quite different from our own. As God told Samuel in our reading, ‘men and women look at the face…but God looks at the heart’.  Therefore, what we see as our ‘best’ or our ‘strongest’ points may not in fact be the reason God has called us to a particular service or task. Therefore, we need to be sure to come before God without any reservations at all, without conditions, bringing everything we are and everything we have to the table. The things we are proud of, as well as the things we may not feel are of much worth at all…our strengths, our weaknesses, our victories and even our past defeats.

And that is because all of these are a part of who we are, who we have become, each a part of our individual stories. Each in some way a reflection of how it is that we came to know our God, and especially those lessons that were the hardest. Those times in our lives that were painful and such a struggle, for God does some of his most critical teaching during the hardest times of our lives…expecting us to be able to minister to others from out of those same lessons learned. So, so often God brings us through the dark places, in order that he can send us out to others who are still lost in those same dark places…asking us to bring hope and possibility to others in struggles that once were our own. 

So, with what should we come to our Lord?  With everything we have and everything we are. With the full story of our life’s journey, including all the times God was so present and evident, as well as all the times God was surely present but not evident to us at all. We need to come with all of the obvious things we have been blessed with…and then, like the young shepherd boy David’s father Jesse, with the part we may have tried to forget, assuming it to be of least importance…the runt of the litter of our life’s accomplishments.

For as we also saw in our reading, our God has amazing patience. God knows what God wants, and God will wait until we bring every last thing that is needed in order for us to be effective in service and love. Our God will wait until we have finally and fully shown up, until we have fully given our lives over into the service of his love.

So, when next you wake up, say a prayer. A prayer of thanksgiving for a brand new day, and for yet another chance to offer your best…as well as everything else…to the one who constantly pulls and tugs at the cords of your heart. Be not afraid to give your strength, your hope, your joy, your defeats, your sorrows, and your fears. For only God knows what is needed in order to make you most effective in service and compassion, and God knows as well all that you have been given…God knows what your story includes. So, do not hide…do not hold back…bring you…the whole you…the real you to God. He will wait for you to show up, he will wait until you have truly put your best foot forward…he will wait until you are ready to ‘embark on a journey with purpose and enthusiasm’

So when you wake tomorrow morning…make it the first thing you do, to give that day over into the care of Jesus…

…and then watch as God works wonders right in front of your eyes…

‘for all you are, is all God needs…

…amen

Notes:

put your best foot forward 

1. to do something as well as you can Make sure you put your best foot forward for tonight’s performance.

2. to start to walk more quickly You’ll have to put your best foot forward if you want to be there by nine.

See also: best, foot, forward, put

Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.

put your best foot forward

to act in a way that causes other people to have a good opinion of you All I could do was put my best foot forward and hope I made a good impression.

See also: best, foot, forward, put

Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.

Copyright © 2011 Farlex, Inc.Source URL: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+best+foot+forward