Dikembe Mutombo: Big; Nice Guy.

If you ever find a list of all around good guy athletes (especially good guy NBA players) Dikembe Mutombo will almost certainly be near the top of the list. He's well known in particular for his efforts to improve living conditions in The Republic of Congo, where he's originally from, going as far as donating more than 15 million dollars to building a hospital with modern facilities. That doesn't mean he's been without his controversy.

Mutombo has been known particularly for two strikes against him; taunting after blocking a shot, and dangerously flailing his elbows. With regards to the taunting, he would wave his finger in front of a player after blocking a shot, as if he was a parent that just took away a cookie from a mischievous child. It got bad enough that the league started calling a technical foul on him for Unsportsmanlike Conduct when he would do it. As for the arm waving, he's a big guy, and he plays aggressively, which causes him to push people away violently some times. In his own words, he doesn't mean to hurt anyone, but his position demands physical play, and the best he can do is to say Sorry, and move on.

I highlight Mutombo because he's a great example of how one can live their life in the world but still donate the fruits to God. Mutombo isn't a perfect man; he clearly has his faults, but he still makes great strides in giving the fruits of his labor to God. While it's good to try to strive for godliness in the work that you do, if you find joy in something and you're good at it, then you can use it for God. While I don't advocate sinking to obvious sin (don't become a mercenary assassin or anything) there's no reason secular work can't be used for God.

I once heard a speaker in college tell a shy Electrical Engineer, "If you're good at making money, go make money." God can use your pension for making money in extraordinary ways, and he did that with Dikembe Mutombo. He's used his basketball ability to build a hospital in the Congo, and he can use your difficult job to accomplish great things too. This isn't easy though; it requires incredible faith, diligence, and humility to keep relying on God. That said, God believes in you, else he wouldn't have put you where you are. Trust in God and give over the fruits of your labor, and be amazed at what he does with them.

"He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building." -- 1st Corinthians 3: 8-9

God's Design: Ben Zobrist

I'll go ahead and reveal a startling revelation to you all: Not everyone is called to full-time ministry. While everyone is called to give their life to God, not everyone is meant to be a Priest, Pastor, or other such jobs that require extraordinary charisma and articulation. On a related note, Ben Zobrist is not Grant Desme. In addition to being a Major League Baseball player instead of a prospect turned Priest, Ben is a man who felt God's call was for him to pursue baseball.

Coming out of High School, Ben didn't receive any calls from scouts. As the son of a pastor, while a very talented athlete, he had planned to go to college to begin his path as a youth minister. He felt God nudging him a little bit, so he decided to use his leftover birthday money and attend a college scouting camp despite his parents' misgivings. Ben received an offer from a school, but told his parents he would submit to their will if they believed God's call for him was in ministry. His parents asked him what he thought God was telling him, and he told them he felt like God wanted him to play a little more, and his parents let him play having showed such maturity earlier. He took the scholarship, was drafted a few years later, and broke into the MLB soon afterwards.

Unlike Grant Desme, he struggled a little coming through the Minors. Despite the gaudy numbers he put up in 2009, Zobrist was always seen as a super-utility player--A great piece on a winning team, but not a cornerstone to build on. Whereas Desme experienced the thrill of being at the top and felt God tug him away, Zobrist felt the dredge of mediocrity and felt God push him on towards greater success.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed...Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. -- 1st Corinthians, 12:1,4-6

If we see God calling some of us away from our mediocre jobs, and others on to greater glory in our current fields, does this mean God is inconsistent? No. This means God has personal plans for each of us, and we need to leave our hearts open for that plan to take hold of our actual lives. Both Ben and Grant's choices were huge leaps of faith; Zobrist risked angering his family and losing out on valuable schooling to pursue a pipe dream, and Grant gave up a possibly highly lucrative career to pursue a lifetime of service. We need to trust God that he gave us the gifts he wanted us to have, has put us in a place to either use them or prepare to use them, and will move us to where he wants his glory to be seen. Let's just hope that we're smart enough to realize his voice instead of shutting him out in favor of our own machinations.