The other day, a small African child fell asleep drooled on my shoulder as he was sleeping. The day after that, I got to sit and talk with a woman dying of AIDS in hospice. And the day after that I got to push a boy with disabilities in his wheelchair until he fell asleep. And it was beautiful.
This month, the Lord is teaching me the ministry of being. Not doing, but simply existing. He’s teaching me to see Him in the stillness, the quiet, the rest. And it’s beautiful.
All of the previous months of the Race, we have been running around like crazy; stressed out, preparing lessons, sermons, and talks. We have been traveling to different locations each day, living in a constant goodbye. We were always doing. And the Lord showed up.
But this month, I get to slow it down. For ministry, I get to visit a place called Hope House, which is a hospice center for people with HIV/AIDS. And I get to sit and talk with people. I get to play with kids. I get to let these people know that they matter and they are loved. And that’s it. End of agenda.
I also get to attend Christmas parties put on by AIM staff. And we get to step in and help where needed, but we also get to snuggle with the kids there. We get to pick them up and spin them in circles. We get to chase them around dusty yards, and we get to hold them as they fall asleep on our shoulders. And that’s it. End of agenda.
And I love it. I love the simplicity. I love simply getting to be. Simply existing in the moment. Existing in the love. There aren’t hundreds of children that I need to entertain. There isn’t a certain amount of time that I need to fill. I just get to love.
It’s so different than life in America. There is always an agenda. Always something that needed to be done yesterday. A place to be, a thing to do, a job to be done. And it’s taxing. And we miss the Lord in so many of those moments.
In trying to do more, be more, we often push ourselves away from the Lord more. We stop listening for Him in the quiet, missing the whisper or the urge or the instinct, overpowered by the noise of doing. He’s teaching me that He has so many more plans for my life than what my career path will be. He has plans for me to meet certain people at certain times, be in certain places, and love in certain places. Those thoughts that pop in to your brain saying “I should go talk to them”, who’s to say that’s not from the Lord?
The idea of resting, of just being, existing, is so foreign to the American dream. It’s not fighting your way to the top. It’s taking the time to sit and rest with our Creator. It’s taking time to love with the love that we have been given. It’s laying aside our agendas, our life of doing, and picking up God’s plan of being.
What does this look like in the future? I don’t know. But this month it looks drool on my shoulder.
