You know the old saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Nowhere is this more apparent than in the church and ministry. I spend a lot of time talking to churches and church folks about putting their gifts and talents to work for the Lord. I usually have people come to me afterwards and say they have trouble getting their churches to use their gift. That’s a different story for a different day.
The ones I want to talk about today are the church leaders who say “I want to put people to work. I give them opportunities and they won’t step up and do it. These are the ones who made Ben Franklin (I think) lament about thirsty horses. What do you do with a gifted horse that won’t drink? Love them, preach to them, serve them, give them what you can, BUT if you invest all your time in them, you’re rewarding bad behavior.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink, but if you went to Atlantic City’s Steel Pier back in the day, they not only had horses who drank, they also dove into the water from a high dive.
Let’s not waste our time debating whether or not this is cruelty to animals. This is so not about that. Some people get every opportunity to drink from the living water of Christ and living His divine purposes and they won’t so much as take a sip. I love them, but they won’t get the majority of my efforts. I’m looking for the ones who will dive in. If I find them and invest in them, they will do great things for the Kingdom. They may even tempt the others to at least take a drink.
Seek out the “diving horses” you won’t have to make them do anything.
