After becoming a Christian in my second term at uni, the first question I asked myself was “What am I doing here then?” I’d given my life to Christ. Should I then leave university and go on the mission field?
Lady Huntingdon was a highborn woman with significant means at her disposal. At the time of her life and death, in the early eighteenth-century, religion was utterly despised by the privileged upper classes. It was a thing for the small-minded ‘little people,’ as it’s often thought of still today. Lady Huntington was an exception. She became a Christian upon hearing George Whitefield speak in 1739 and threw herself wholeheartedly into supporting his preaching campaigns.
She was no theologian. She didn’t work; couldn’t speak in public; had no taste for adventure… What Lady Huntingdon did have was money and connections. And she put them to good use. She poured her wealth into the building of over 60 chapels in London, contributing to others, so that the masses might hear God’s word. But her influence was even more valuable. Opening up her home twice a week to her fellows, she provided lunches and teas while Whitefield spoke to them from the Bible. In this way a number of distinguished Duchesses, Earls and Viscounts – an otherwise unreachable sector of society – not only heard the Gospel, they believed it.
In short, Lady Huntingdon offered what she could. Trusting in Christ had changed her status with God; it had not changed her title. She didn’t have to abandon her previous associations or position. Instead she simply allowed God to use them.
Paul writes a similar thing to us as Christians in his letter to the Corinthian church: “Brothers and sisters, each person as responsible to God should remain in the situation they were in when God called them,” (1 Corinthians 7:24). In other words, serving God does not require us to drop everything and become a missionary in some distant land. It may well be for certain people, but it’s not the norm. No, God has us exactly where He wants us and promises to use us for His glory. We, in turn, are to do the same. To offer all that we have for His purposes.
Maybe that’s by sticking at the job you’re in at the moment to witness to our colleagues there. Or through hospitality – inviting friends round for tea with one another, (Hebrews 13:2). Or by putting on ‘Gospel Dinners’ with a short talk, just as Lady Huntingdon did. Whatever your situation, gifts, resources: God doesn’t call us to give what we don’t have, just to be faithful with what we do.
Andrew