Willing to Stand in the Gap

“I looked for someone… to stand in the gap…”
Ezekiel 22:30-31

            I believe that the ministries God has given us come in all shapes, sizes…and costumes!

            Of course, I would, for my name is Sizzle, and I am a clown!

            My other self is named Daphne Pfaff.

            For years before she created me, Daphne volunteered as a counselor on a suicide crisis telephone Hotline. As she listened to desperate people at the loneliest, most threatened and despairing times of their lives, Daphne knew she could not help them alone, but she didn’t have to, for each time she took a call…

            God was on the line.

            When we are willing, God will use us to stand in the gap, acting as conduits of His love to those who desperately need it. And like us, the ministries He has given us come in all shapes, sizes…and costumes!

            When Daphne created me, it was to minister to people sick in both body and in spirit.

            Through me, Sizzle the clown, she trained nearly 150 others to clown in the hospitals in our community. Many are faithful people with a desire to minister God to others.

            Not unlike crisis Hotline callers, hospital patients are all to some degree afraid, lonely, confused and vulnerable. That is why I teach my clowns to be sensitive, refraining from any coercion toward conversion.

            Nonetheless, God is active in every hospital room where we encounter pain and suffering. At such times, we are in fact His messengers, called to stand in the gap between Him and His people to deliver His relief from stress and suffering.

            And we are never inhibited from leaving with a hearty and enthusiastic “You’re in my prayers!”

            We may in humility believe we are unable or unworthy to be one of God’s agents of help or change to another soul. But He will find a way to use us…maybe not as a hospital clown or suicide Hotline volunteer but just as positively and just as real if we are open and . . .

            Willing to stand in the gap.  Daphne Pfaff AKA Sizzle, the Clown