Everyone wears sunglasses of perspective.
It’s hard to value your own at times. The big trendy thing to do is to take pictures with kids in Africa and/or post a Bible verse/indie song lyric on Facebook with a #vscocam landscape photo of some obscure beach. Meanwhile, back in the backwoods, God is moving quietly and has me singing in church on Sundays, hosting a couple ladies’ breakfasts, and selling toys in the next tourist town over.
Is this as exciting as spending my summer feeding widows in Guatemala or travelling the Southeast putting on Gospel camps for kids? Is it as meaningful as interning at a megachurch co-leading worship or studying abroad in the Mediterranean or serving at a family camp in Michigan?
God’s Word tells me the answer is yes. When I started working fast food at age 14, this was a verse I quickly memorized and treasured:
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” (Col 3:23).
Paul originally wrote this portion of his letter to slaves who had become Christians. If I were them, I would’ve been looking around at the others in the church, feeling like I wasn’t doing anything compared to everyone else. I would be….serving my master. Working. Remaining.
Oh, how we love to over-glorify the ministries of others as if we’re doing nothing worthwhile for the Kingdom of God. As if learning obedience to a boss, love for the church and those in our rag-tag semi-women’s ministry, and the value of rest aren’t important, as if we know better and feel like we should be doing more NOW. If we have submitted our lives to Christ and are seeking his guidance, he will always lead us to the right spot for this season.
Where I am is best for this moment of development in my life, spiritually and otherwise. Moments and conversations that seem of no eternal significance to me are, surprise, part of God’s plan. Nothing is overlooked. What a comfort.
The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has provided a way for us to see, and it is paradoxically the way of the unseen: faith (Heb 11:1-3). None of our five senses qualify in being able to “see” God; belief, trust, and humble, loving obedience are the way of our Master.
I take my hat off to my friends who are running around the world this summer eagerly taking the big opportunities the Lord has placed before them. I clap for my other friends who are grinding the mill at their mundane offices/Starbucks/retail shops, the summer “Jerusalems” where they are ministering by the perseverance the Spirit gives them (Acts 1:8). I thank God that every spiritual conversation I’ve had on my lunch break or every invitation I’ve handed out to someone at Walgreens has a purpose for my Father, who has appointed me for such a time as this.
Whatever role this season has in my life, I can be confident that God is at work. You can be, too: we have his promises, and last time I checked they were all “YES” in Christ (2 Cor 1:20).
