Everyday Missional
As most of my readers know, our family serves people in various ways. We spend time with people in a local nursing home and government assisted housing project. But, in reality, these opportunities to serve God by serving other people are the tip of the iceberg.
What do I mean by that? I mean that primarily God uses us to serve people in simple, everday ways. Grace at “Kingdom Grace” has written an excellent post about this type of serving in a post called “Missional in the Moment“.
Grace expresses how she has learned to serve people moment by moment:
- The main thing that I learned about myself is that in order to love others, I usually have to go one step beyond what I am culturally comfortable with. I was raised to respect other people’s privacy, to be non-intrusive, to be non-demonstrative, and to be somewhat introverted about approaching others. Not that I am now obnoxious, but in order to express care to others, I have to step outside of my comfort zone and risk stepping into theirs.
- I have also discovered that I have to stay present in the moment and present to the people around me. Most missional moments appear fairly insignificant.
- Missional moments look like an opportunity to let someone know that I care about them and what they are going through, sometimes just with words, sometimes with specific actions.
- Remembering I carry within me the light, power, and life of Jesus Christ, the choice is always available to me to share that love with others or to withhold it. I try to be generous with His abundant love.
- I am sharpening my awareness that everywhere around me are people who need words of life and sharpening my sensitivity to where God is at work.
- From a kingdom perspective, every act of love and care is an investment in eternity. I remind myself of the eternal significance of even the smallest opportunities to love.
- That’s it. Learning moment by moment to hear from the Father, to follow the Spirit, and to share the love of Jesus in every imaginable opportunity that presents itself during my day.
There is alot of wisdom is what Grace has to say. We’ve found that God gives amazing opportunities to serve and demonstrate his love to others when we are aware of the people that he puts in our lives, and when we are willing to go beyond our comfort zone. What do you think about Grace’s list?
Great list! Sounds like the voice of experience speaking. Not only do most missional moments appear fairly insignificant at the time, but we have discovered that they are really easy to miss.
Someone may need a bit of help, and we’re just ready to sit down to read, eat or watch television. Our minds say “Not now! I want to read.”
Or a few weeks ago I saw a lady who lives in the neighborhood wearing a head scarf. She never has before, and it was not that cold that day. A few days later I saw her husband in his yard, and almost ran past (I don’t like to interrupt my runs), but stopped and asked about his wife.
She has cancer,is very frightened, and wants to talk. We’ve loaned them a book and movies, and they asked us into their home to talk. I could easily have run on past. Most of our most missional moments could have been missed just as easily.
We are so busy. We probably miss so many opportunities. We miss most of what is important because we are so busy doing what is urgent. Did not our Heavenly Father put us here to help Him build a Kingdom, but we’re so busy with our mud pies and sand castles that we have little time to help build the Kingdom of God?
It sounds like Grace has a lot of insight in to her own life. It shows that it is well thought out by someone who has much experience in searching for ways to serve God by helping others.
I can definitely relate to this statement:
Grace expresses how she has learned to serve people moment by moment: The main thing that I learned about myself is that in order to love others, I usually have to go one step beyond what I am culturally comfortable with. I was raised to respect other people’s privacy, to be non-intrusive, to be non-demonstrative, and to be somewhat introverted about approaching others.
I was raised in the same way. If I don’t make a point to let others know that I care about them and would like to help them, it just doesn’t happen.
Thanks for posting on Grace’s comments.
Blessings,
Gary