During one of our last team meetings on the Race, my FUSE! teammates and I spoke things over each other. Things we thought the Lord wanted our teammates to hear. My team told me a few different things, but they all agreed on one of their major points: “You are very capable, but you will need to be patient when you get home. Don’t jump at the first opportunity to minister.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with us, except to make sure I sought the Lord on the opportunities of which I availed myself at home. So a few months ago, a couple months off the Race, I decided to join World Race staff as an ‘apprentice’ — a six-month staff commitment. Because of various confounding circumstances, my start date on staff got pushed back a couple times. I thought, “Great I’m learning patience just like my team said.”So now I’ve been in Michigan for a few weeks. I’m doing a lot of emailing and talking with guy team leaders on the field. I’m reading all the blogs then men on the field write and commenting and emailing them when I see something more they could be thinking about or some way they could be encouraged in their journey.
All that’s great, but since I’ve been home I’ve been increasing anxious to get to work on a long-term calling to which I can commit. I’m ready to have a home and relationships I can cultivate over time. I started to get a little edgy.
Over the past few months I’ve been telling people that one of the coolest things I learned last year was that we get life from ministry. I tell people then when we are activated and operating in the gifts with which the Lord has blessed us, we find life, we find joy, peace, and energy. I’m finding that might not be completely accurate.
I’ve been reading this book lately that talks about orphan hearts, and finding adoption from the Father of all Creation. I started to search my heart to figure out how I could get my heart right to find joy in the present moment, rather than continuing to look to some future call as a promise of peace. And here’s the thing:
WE DON’T GET LIFE FROM MINISTRY.
LIFE COMES FROM THE FATHER. MINISTRY IS A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF
A LIFE LIVED IN RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CREATOR.
And so I reevaluated what’s going on in my life. I have an hour a day to sit in the Lord’s presence. I get to pour into other young people who are on a journey to and with the greatest god there is. I get to witness His work in their lives all the while pursuing his embrace for myself.
I woke up this morning and read a bunch of blogs from Racers on the field. The Lord is doing amazing things in their lives. I get to be a part of it. The Lord has made me a part of it. And my relationship with Him grows.
Pursuing Him, ready to be used when He calls me.
Rejoicing in His peace and love in the meantime.
Rejoicing in His peace and love in the meantime.
