The last week in Australia has been hectic to say the least. We leave for Indonesia on Saturday. Once we arrive our squad of 40+ people will break out into teams of six to travel the country and live amongst different people groups. For now however, I am going to use a phrase my public accounting firm taught me, which is ‘be here now.’
The phrase is used by my firm to mean that we should be in each moment rather than having our mind elsewhere during a meeting, a conversation with a co-worker, or even having dinner with our family. I believe that there is definitely something biblical to this phrase. In Psalms 46:10 it says to be still and know that I am God. Further, in James 4:14 it says, “Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”
I believe this is something God has been trying to teach me this month. I have this notion that I must be constantly looking on to the next thing so that I do not miss what God has for me or the people I will encounter. The problem is whenever I do that I am missing out on what God has for me in those moments: the people I can share testimony to, the impactful ministry I can be carrying out, or even the kind word I can pass on to make someone’s day a little better.
Something the Adventures in Missions has been trying to teach us is the phrase ‘ministry is life & life is ministry.’ I believe it goes along with the phrase ‘be here now,’ in the fact that God can be found in all moments of our life. If we can be attentive to that he will continue to present opportunities to further his kingdom.
A great example of this was earlier this week when we had our day off from ministry work. We paired off into groups of four to go and have an adventure day. My group decided to go snorkeling at a reef off the coast of Byron Bay. It was stunningly beautiful to see in person. We saw fish of every color, shape, and size, and even got to see some sharks.
However, the cool part of the day ended up being when we met our snorkeling guide. It turned out she was from California and had just graduated college. She had actually looked into doing the World Race before deciding to come to Australia to get her scuba instructor certification. It was cool to be able to pour into her through casual conversation. She got to lift us up as we talked about all the places we would be going to over the next 10 months. We ended up inviting her to Pancakes and Chai, which is one of our relational ministries in Australia where we have free food, music, and tea in the park at downtown Byron Bay. During this time we get to connect with people from all over the world.
My point to the story though, is that we could have easily had an adventure that day and clocked out, but my group showed me what it means to live out ‘ministry is life & life is ministry.’ I pray that we would all start to live this phrase out in our lives. To be still sometimes and simply take note of what God has for us in the present. Prayers for our upcoming travel, and for thoughts to remain present as we finish up ministry in Australia.
