2 Corinthians 4:1, 16 “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart… Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
Sometimes when we go to ministry, I get flashbacks of things that I did or didn’t do well BR (that’s before the race). Today’s guilty moment was when we walked down the road to the health clinic that Living Hope operates to hang out with the nurses and pretty much do whatever they needed.
Living Hope runs a tight ship- the floors were clean, the beds were made, and the patients (a small handful of older women) were lounging in the sun room, happily chatting with one another- so, with nothing ‘serious’ to do, Heather walked us back to the sun room, handed us a box of nail polish, files and lotion, and let us treat the women to a day at the spa.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved my grandmothers. I love every Easter when Grandma takes my sister and cousin and me dress shopping, usually an event that involves much eye rolling on her end at the silly antics on ours. I loved going out to lunch every Thanksgiving with Abuelita and Dad- this traditional meal was when I first decided I was moving in with her and turning her duplex into the infamous Bachelorette Pad of my college years. I love Starbucks dates with Grandma (plain coffee for her, extra hot upside down caramel macchiato for me) or midnight rendezvous with Abuelita (a chance to tell her all of the reasons I wasn’t yet married). Even when they felt the need to tell me the same stories and give me the same pieces of advice over and over again, or when I embarrassed them for yet the thousandth time by making them flap their wings at La Madeleine (that’s for you, Grandma), my relationship with both of my grandmothers has always been a huge piece of my life.
Last year, Abuelita got old- not unlike the women whose nails I painted today- and my life changed from hanging out at the Bachelorette Pad with her to staying overnight in the emergency room with her, helping her with all of the simple tasks that she was no longer able to do for herself and going back and forth between trying to convince her that she wasn’t dying and being secretly mad at her that she was. I took this pain and frustration out on her in weird ways- I was already naturally efficient, hardworking and unemotional so it was easy for me to come in a gruffly help change her, tell her she couldn’t eat, and sign the do- not- resuscitate forms for her. Multiple times my mom would come over and tell me just to be gentle and not to worry, because there wasn’t much we could do for her anyway but to love her.
Today, while I was massaging wrinkly feet and painting nails all sorts of ridiculous mints and lilacs and mauves, all I could think about was how much Abuelita would have loved this.
This is ministry: it’s loving on the old women, it’s being a light to the nurses, it’s caring about people even when they’re a little crazy and grumpy and just want out of the hospital (can you blame them?). Maybe that means touching feet that are a little repulsive or helping an ulcer- plagued women to the bathroom, maybe it’s sneaking food to your grandmother when she’s hungry or taking the time to paint her nails, even when you’re feeling emotionally spent.
I don’t know what your ministry is today, but I know that you won’t have it for long. My encouragement to you (and myself) is to enter it fully, even when it’s hard, so that when it’s all said and done we’re not crying over the proverbial spilled milk (or nail polish), but we’re moving onto the next good thing the Lord has prepared for us to do knowing we haven’t held anything back, that we’ve loved with our whole hearts and made a difference in the world, even if for today that means just one life.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
