I have always been encouraged and challenged by the story of D.L. Moody, who lived in the latter half of the 1800s. His formal education ended after fifth grade. At seventeen, he left his home to pursue employment in Boston. After failing to secure a job, he asked his uncle to hire him, who reluctantly brought him on as a shoe salesman at his retail shoe store. One condition of Moody’s hiring was that he would attend church.
Moody began attending a Sunday School class at the Mt. Vernon Congregational Church. One day Moody’s Sunday School teacher visited him at work, where he shared the message of salvation in Christ with him, and shortly after that, Moody received Christ as Savior and Lord. He devoted his life to serving the Savior.
A year later, Moody moved to Chicago, dreaming of making his fortune in the shoe business. He had much success in selling shoes. He developed a burden to provide a Sunday School class for Chicago’s children and the local Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). At the YMCA, Moody served as a janitor and wherever else needed. Although they could not pay him, they recommended he stay as a city missionary.
The Sunday School class Moody began and led flourished and grew into a church, where he became the pastor. The church remains today (The Moody Church). Moody continued to stay connected to the YMCA. During the Civil War, he began an outreach to the soldiers stationed at Camp Douglas, established outside Chicago. Moody ministered on battlefields and throughout the city, state, and country to thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers throughout the war. All the while, he maintained the mission Sunday School. After the war, Moody led revival meetings in the US, England, and Ireland. He’s credited with founding numerous ministries, missions, and schools, such as the historical Moody Bible Institute.
Moody’s story is that of an undereducated man who became a successful shoe salesman and is remembered as an evangelist, teacher, urban ministry pioneer, and founder of Moody Bible Institute and its original ministries. Moody once said of another unlikely servant in the hands of God, “Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody; forty years learning he was nobody; and forty years discovering what God can do with nobody.”
Whenever you wonder if God can use you to make a kingdom impact remember, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Believers can rejoice in God’s empowering presence as they place themselves in His capable hands. The goal is not to become another Moody. The goal is to walk with the Lord, knowing Him and making Him known as He manifests His love and message through you. The goal is to be an everyday missionary in the places where we live, go to work or school, and play. Further, in Christ’s power and leading, we can flourish in Him, experiencing all He will do in and through us for His glory, our blessing, and the betterment of others. Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone)!