I want to share with you some deeply personal things, so that you know me. Because we don’t really know people unless they open the windows and turn on the lights, right? Well, consider this my beacon through the glass… peer as long as you want, cross the threshold, grab a cup of warm coffee, and sit a spell… I don’t want you to think this is going to be short…
I ran for city council this past week. Now, when I say that I ran for city council… here’s what happened… I had the idea that I would like to add another way to serve my community, so I put my name on the ballot. Running for city council is another example of my desire to serve and to strengthen a community of people. I have nothing to gain from running for council.
I asked Beef to grab the application and bring it to me, and ran around frantically on the last hour of the last day that my petition could be in. With 8 minutes to spare before the deadline, I had more than enough signatures, and my name in the hat. When the names were released the next day, there was no one except me running for the empty seat.
I heard no comments, no murmurs, and no questions were asked in the month leading up to the elections. When I posted on my Facebook wall about why I was running, and it was shared by a couple of my family members, I felt like I had offered up an explanation as to why I wanted to run.
When I received word that there were phone calls being made; asking people to write in votes, rather than to vote for me, I was taken aback. For one, I hadn’t heard anything during any of my dealings to warrant suspicion that I may have opposition. Secondly, I have made no public comments other than in support of our city, and therefore had no reason to think that there would be any reason for anyone to oppose me. Okay, so people may not know who I am, but to outright ask people to write in another candidate rather than to vote for me? Strange.
It was laughable at first. “Really? Controversy before I’m even elected. I’m not from here, so these town folk have no real reason to oppose me, do they? How on earth have I made someone mad? All I’ve done since I’ve been here is work for the school and church and buy a house and support the economy here. What reason would anyone have to oppose me?” These were just some of the thoughts I had when I first found out. But then, the humor turned into disappointment. Why would there be no one running for this empty seat except me, and then a select group of people try to cast me out with a write in? What reason did this group of people have for wanting me not to get on the council? What’s going on in this town? For the people who said they didn’t know me well, I was the one who delivered your mail in person – the day the postal carrier put your letter in the wrong box on a Saturday. I came to your house, rang the bell, and delivered your letter. I could’ve just scratched a line through it and marked “Return, Not at This Address”, or left it in the box. However, I believe in being a good neighbor.
Who am I? I’m the one who goes up to the school and rakes leaves on the weekends or pulls weeds or sweeps the mulch from the sidewalk and parking lot back into the playground. Who am I? I’m the one who knocks on doors and delivers free tickets to a carnival that I coordinated at our church, so that we could come together as a community. Who am I? I’m the one who watches the kids as they come and go to and from school and I make sure the ones who live nearby get home safely. Who am I? I’m the one who yells at speeding vehicles to slow down, and I stop cars to let kids use the crosswalk. Who am I? I’m the one who cheers on the students as they make their reading and physical fitness goals. Who am I? I’m the one who personally notifies new residents in our town when there is a boil order because they aren’t aware of the news. Who am I? I’m the person who doesn’t have the same last name as you or any other “legacy” family here, but I’m willing to do the work that needs to be done because I believe in community service. Who am I? I’m a citizen of this town just like you, I would like to see it grow and change and strengthen and stand the test of time. Who am I? I’m a caring person, who has an open mind and is willing to hear people out – all people, not just a select few – and to ask important questions and to help people understand why things happen the way they do. Who am I? I’m the wife of a veteran, who understands what it’s like to move into a town and have no friends or family and try to fit in. Who am I? I’m the mother of two children in this school district. I chose this town, Ainsworth, to purchase a house in, to make a home in, to settle my family in, to build friendships in, to go to worship in, to work in, to shop in, to play in. Who am I? I’m an intelligent, hardworking, talented woman who is willing to do the work that needs to be done. Who am I? I’m a person who is willing to answer questions asked of me in a respectful way, when they are asked directly to me; I am willing to explain my viewpoints when I’m asked what they are, and I am willing to work with others to serve a community I believe in. I know who I am, and I know that I have a purpose.
Isaiah 49 talks about The LORD’S Servant Commissioned:
“Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands! The LORD called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name. He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver. He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.’ I replied, ‘But my work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all. Yet I leave it all in the LORD’S hand; I will trust God for my reward.’ And now the LORD speaks – he who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring his people of Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength. He says, ‘You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.’ The LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the one who is despised and rejected by a nation, to the one who is the servant of the rulers: ‘Kings will stand at attention when you pass by. Princes will bow low because the LORD has chosen you. He, the faithful LORD, the Holy One of Israel, chooses you.’.”
He chooses you.
I am chosen. I know it. I have been chosen since The LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel knitted me together in my mother’s womb and breathed that first breath of air into my lungs. He chose me. I do not say this to sound arrogant. Please don’t misconstrue my statement. I am nothing but a pile of dust, handed down from generation to generation, and I will become dust again someday. But God still chose to use me. He picked me out and called me to something bigger than what I can even dream. Satan has tried to prevent me from doing God’s work since I was a child. Through years and years of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual warfare, Satan has tried to destroy my hope, my faith, my sense of purpose; he has attempted to steal my mind, my will, my knowledge; and he has even attempted to kill me more than once. Yet God snatched me from those snares and set my feet on solid ground.
Yes, I realize how weird that sounds. Indeed, I understand that the above paragraph sounds completely written for dramatic purposes; and I might not believe it either – if I hadn’t lived it.
I am chosen and I am called to serve God. Whatever that looks like as He calls me.
I am compassionate. I am open-minded and eager to learn about others. I do not take those gifts lightly, and I use them most of the time. In fact, I operate on the assumption that all people are equally valued by God based upon His scale, not ours. We do nothing to earn the love of God, nor can we ever qualify for it. We simply cannot out love God, out give God, or out do God. He will always trump us. He is the one true King.
I am nothing under His hand and nothing without Him. So, when I am certain that I have been called to something, you should believe that He will protect me. I am His.
Momma Rich's 