“I realized yesterday that we as Christians overcomplicate things. We ask ourselves “What is enough for today?”. We write down daily victories. We strive even when we’re trying not to strive. It’s frustrating! I don’t think God is sitting in heaven wrting down our victories. I don’t think He’s saying we did or didn’t do enough for His kingdom that day. The two most important commandments that Jesus gives us are to 1. Love God and 2. Love people. That’s it. I think those are the only things we should truly be concerned with. All we should ask ourselves at the end of the day are “Did I love God?” and “Did I love people?”. We should ask if we loved God the right way or if we loved the right people. We should asked if we loved enough people or spent enough time loving God. No, no, no! No score-keeping! No works! No striving!
Simply, “Did I love God and love people???”
If you loved and God and loved people with actions, because love is a verb, then that’s all that matters. That is what God wants from us. That is enough, because Christ’s death and resurrection means that faith is more important than works.” (Written May 17th)
When your only ministry is building relationships with people, it is easy to feel like you aren’t doing enough. It’s easy to think that you should have talked to more people that day or had a deeper conversation with the person you did talk to.
The thing is, when I get back home, I won’t have a set ministry. My life will look a little like my time on Tioman Island. Each day, I will just live my life, whatever it looks like. I will go to work. I will go to the grocery store and the pharmacy and out to eat at a restaurant. I won’t spend my days volunteering at an orphanage or teaching English at a school or doing manual labor. Does this give me a free pass from doing ministry??? Absolutely not! My life is my ministry. Just like I made my life on Tioman Island ministry, I can make my life in America ministry too. Like I wrote in my journal, the most important commands God gives us are to love Him and to love people. There are no specifics. No specific place, no specific time, no specific type of people. He commands us to love Him and love people ALL the time and EVERYwhere!
So wherever I am and whatever I am doing, this will be my ministry. I will simply love God and love people!
“He said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.’” -Matthew 22:37-39
