Using Your Gifts...

I hope you’re setting aside some time to inventory this past year. In fact, take some time today and reflect back on the ways God showed you compassion this year.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:35-38 NIV

If your time of reflection yields a healthy list of God’s compassionate giving to you, then let me ask you one other question: how might you take those gifts and use them to equip you to become one of the workers Jesus has asked us to pray for? I ask because obviously Jesus saw a need for workers.

“As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Matthew 10:7-8 NIV

I hope that soon, very soon, our nation will be coming out of the pandemic. We will know this when our hospitals are back to normal and people are not getting sick at alarming rates. When we know this, as we return to a life that is not limiting contact for the safety of us and others, there will be much work to be done.

Because of economic uncertainties and illness, political and societal unrest, and our inability to control our daily lives in the habitual ways we once were, folks are going to be less well, less robust, less mentally fit. We’re going to need some folks who have used this year to prepare to be helpers to step up. Could that maybe be you?