A little follow-up to my last blog (because clearly God has quite the sense of humor)--
So, after writing that last blog, boy, I was fired up and ready to dig in and get to work on the lecture and that mountain of laundry. Yes sir, here we go...
...and then, later that afternoon, God in His infinite wisdom and mercy, gave me a terrible stomach bug! Out of the blue. And can I just say for the record: stomach bugs are the absolute pits.
Now, at the time I didn’t exactly view it as a gift from Him, but I do now. I felt really crummy for several days, but I realized two things. One is that once again I had taken for granted the incredible gift of good health and of simply waking up and feeling good.
How could I? My sweet sister-in-law, who went home to be with the Lord in early December after her brief battle with cancer, had said repeatedly, “I can’t believe I took for granted how great it was to wake up and feel good.” For several months after that, I would awaken and feel overwhelming gratitude for that gift of health…but somehow, by the time January rolled around and the to-list grew long, I had forgotten.
And that’s the thing—we’re all good forgetters, aren’t we? God teaches us something, and we think we’ll never forget that lesson…but before you know it, we’ve forgotten all about it and fallen back into a bad way of thinking and acting. We hear or read a Scripture that resonates deeply within us, and we know is God speaking to us in that moment…but then time marches on, and we quickly forget.
That’s why we have to be reminded of things we once knew, but we’ve forgotten! That’s why we have to get into God’s Word everyday! Yesterday’s mana from His Word won’t sustain us today, just as yesterday’s meal won’t give us energy today. No, we need to eat physical food today if we want to have the strength to do all we’ve got before us today. And we’ve got to get God’s spiritual food into us today if we want to have the wisdom, the love, the energy, the patience, the joy, the hope that we need for today's burdens and challenges.
And the second thing I learned—or I should say RE-learned—from the stomach bug is that it’s not us doing whatever we’re called to do, it’s Almighty God! Anytime we start thinking to ourselves, “How can I do all this?” or “What can I do about this?” or “Why am I having to do all this?” we’ve totally missed the boat! We need to be reminded daily that it’s not us, but Him! It’s not us trying to love or forgive the people God’s put in our lives—it’s Him doing it through us. It’s not us running errands or volunteering at our child’s school or working at that office—it’s Him doing it through us.
If you’ve asked Jesus to be your Savior, then He lives within you, empowering and enabling you for everything He’s put before you today. Yes, yes, you’re thinking, I know that. But seriously, don’t you need to be reminded? Because here’s the remarkable thing—you are God’s missionary. No maybe you’re not a missionary being sent to a faraway country right now, but wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you talk to today, you’re His missionary.
Here’s how pastor, author, and teacher J.R. Briggs explains it: “The King is looking for subjects to join His Kingdom in His mission, and He invites you to join with Him. You’re His missionary cleverly disguised as” a homemaker, lawyer, teacher, mother. Briggs shares a story about a woman from his church named Jess who really caught this vision and began to see her mission field as the hair salon where she worked. So one day, she knelt down in front of the whole church, and they commissioned her to be a missionary at that hair salon. With that, others in the church realized the same thing, and they wanted to be commissioned too! One was a missionary cleverly disguised as a public middle school teacher. Another was a missionary cleverly disguised as an accountant and so forth.
If you’re a believer, then you, too, are a cleverly disguised missionary! Perhaps God's plan for you is to go as His missionary to some faraway land to share the good news of the gospel. That may or may not be God's specific calling on your life. But this I know for sure--for every single one of us, today, right now, He has called you to be His missionary right where you!
When you walk into Target, you’re His cleverly disguised missionary to that exhausted clerk. When you’re at home, you’re His cleverly disguised missionary to all those little eternal souls that reside within your home or to your spouse or to anyone who comes to visit. When you go to work, you’re His cleverly disguised missionary to your fellow workers and customers.
God has sent you—specifically you—to be His missionary wherever you go today and whatever you’re doing! And not only that, but He's the One—through His indwelling Holy Spirit—who will fill you and enable you to be that loving, wise, joyful, and faithful missionary!
Today, you are sent as His cleverly disguised missionary...who will you love with the love of Christ? Who will you encourage with His encouragement? To whom will you show grace and forgiveness even if you don't feel like it or they don't "deserve" it? (and who among us ever deserves it?! Aren't you thankful Jesus didn't hold us to that impossible standard?)
So fellow cleverly disguised missionaries, let's go out there today and be His salt and light in the world. He's sent us, He goes with us, and He will shine through us. And no darkness can ever overcome the Light of the World. To God be the glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment