As I sit at Starbucks and reflect on my first two weeks serving the Lord and His children here at Hephzibah Children's Home, I am amazed at how quickly they have gone. I feel as though yesterday I was pulling onto the campus for the first time filled with a flood of mixed emotions, unsure what the Lord was calling me to for the summer. It's only been two weeks, but He has taught me so much about learning to trust Him, love His children with His heart and seeing them with His eyes, and experiencing the pain of goodbyes when the hello happened only a few days before. I am so grateful for the lessons He has been teaching me as I follow Him on this path He has laid out before me. I end each day exhausted from loving the youngest children and their teenage mothers who for various reasons have been removed from their homes and placed in this residential group facility. I fall into bed each night with the prayer on my lips for physical, emotional and spiritual rest so I can take on the day that is about the unfold before me. And God has been faithful.
Throughout all these lessons, the biggest lesson I have felt Him pounding into my ever so thick skull these past two weeks is that I am not the only one serving Him this summer. I am not the only person struggling to figure out where it is He is calling me to. I am not the only person who believes that the ministry I am doing is direly important because this is the Lord's work.
Everything is the Lord's work.
When Jesus presented His disciples with the Great Commission, He did not present it to them with specific names, types of ministry or organizations in mind. He did not tell them to go to all nations but especially this area because it's more important. Jesus did not limit the scope or spectrum of His commission to His followers. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the Apostles that they will be His "witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
"...to the ends of the earth."
The Lord has reminded me this week in particular that though the work He has led me to here in Macon is important and is where He desires me to be at this time, it is not the only work He is in the business of doing right now, As I scroll through my social media feeds, I am quickly reminded that I have friends serving Him diligently around the world to places where He has called them. This summer alone I have friends serving, who will serve, or who recently served in the Chicago area, North Carolina, Virginia, Cambodia, Italy, Haiti, Indianapolis, Orlando, China, the Dominican Republic of Congo, Birmingham, Ecuador, and numerous other areas that I could continue to list.
I am not alone in my efforts to serve the Lord.
I am grateful for the Lord's reminder that it is not up to me to do all the work. He has called and equipped all of His faithful followers to partner in the work that He is doing around the world. And each one of us is called to do something different which is a beautiful image of the Body of Christ. We are in various parts of the world, serving in many different fields of work, and the Lord has called each one of us to this particular work. As He has called, so He goes with us and remains faithful in helping us complete the good work He has set before us.
"Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" (John 20:21-22)
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