Before starting ministry in Bolivia, I have to admit, I wasn´t expecting much out of month two.
It was all squad month, which meant I´d have no escape from the forty other people on my squad, and it was a manual-labor, cook-your-own-food, live-out-of-your-tent-in-the-middle-of-nowhere kind of month.
Yay.
I knew I couldn´t let this month slip by, so I asked my squad coach Jeff for some advice on how to walk away at the end of the month with a story of purpose to tell. He led me to Psalm 5:3, which says, “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacifice for you and watch.” He told me to come before the Lord, wait, and watch for him to show up, because he will.
So for the month I spent in Bolivia, I looked for God, expecting him to reveal himself in the ways that he was already there all around me.
On one of our offdays, I decided to read the Gospel of Luke in its entirety. It had been a long time since I´d attended an english church service, and I just felt this need for some Good News in my life. Luke has always been my favorite evangelist, so I flipped open to it during the message and couldn´t stop reading for the rest of the day.
God showed up to meet with me that day. He had a whole lot to say about his kingdom and the call upon the life of a believer to make sacrifices and give up everything in order to find true purpose.Story after story unvieled a clearer and more beautiful picture of the sort of person God is after.
The sinful woman who wept before Jesus and lovingly annointed him with perfume, the poor, crippled, blind, and lame who were joyfully received at the great banquet, the tax collector named Zaccheaus, who turned away from all the sin he was living in and turned instead to the ways of the Lord.
These people were not celebrated in their community. They had nothing special going for them. They drew no attention to themselves nor were they considered spiritual leaders by any means. Nothing about their lives or their reputation was what gave them an incredible story to tell.
And that´s when it struck me…my story, my testimony, my journey, doesn´t have to be all about ME-about my failures, my pains, my growth, my victory, my healing, my passions. It can go so much deeper and be focused on so much greater of a character.
This life-this story I´ve been entrusted to tell-from start to finish is ALL about the Kingdom of God, which is in the very midst of us! (Luke 17:21) It can be all about the One who came to seek and save the lost (19:10), the One who receives praise from creation, so much so that even the rocks cry out (19:40). It can be a testimony that celebrates the incredible provision of the One who inspired a widow to give all she had to live on (21:4); the One who generously gives power and wisdom to those who choose to stand firm and speak on his behalf (21:15). It can be so much more than an account of my failures and weaknesses; it can be about the God who humbly came to lead his creation by serving them (23:26), the very same One who was strong enough to say, “Not my will but Yours be done” (23:42).
How much more empowering would our years be if this were the sort of testimony we told, the type of story we lived out? Would not our day be so much more fulfilling if at evening we could turn and say, “Were not our hearts burning within us when he talked to us?” (24:32)
And it can be. For “the Kingdom of God is the midst of you” (17:21) and we are “clothed with power from on high” (24:49).
Kingdom Living is not some fancy, mysterious formula. It´s as simple as saying “Yes Lord” and learning to walk more deeply in his love. It´s a good lifestyle–full, pleasing, honorable, alive. And it doesn´t take an eleven month missions trip to live thatt way. God is here. He is all around us. We just have to start looking for him, because once we do, he won´t stop showing himself.
So don´t limit your testimony to a story about you. You´re not that big of a deal, but He is. Put Christ front and center and let his Kingdom be the setting upon which your story unfolds.
“Open up your heart, and let Me in.”
