Nothing Fancy

Call me crazy, but when I read through my Bible and see how Jesus lived out His life and how He fulfilled His destiny, I feel like He kept things pretty simple. There was nothing fancy, there was simplicity, and it was organic. He just sort of showed up and got involved in people's lives. In fact, many of the most powerful stories in all of Scripture happened "along the way." Jesus met others in the context of their normal lives, and as an interruption to their expected daily schedules, they ran into a divine setup by God.

I want to live my life in this same way. By the world's standards, Jesus had no great title, and He held no lofty position. But He fulfilled His destiny to "preach the good news, bind the brokenhearted, replace ashes for beauty, give gladness in place of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair." (Isaiah 61:1-4; Matt. 9:35-38; Luke 4:16-22)

I can do this. I don't need a title or a college degree. I don't need a paid position, and I don't need to be in full time vocational ministry. I just need His eyes, His heart, and a little wiggle room in my tightly held agenda.

I have lived the race, and I am being deeply challenged to make room for more moments that are unexpected and that might occur "along the way" to someplace else....divine interruptions in my own agenda and schedule, you could say. If I slow down, if I choose to see, and if I allow God to have His way in my life, I can see God's fingerprints in every day and in every relationship, during every waittressing shift, and with every conversation. I see Him show up.

But I need to make room. And I need to be IN the world. So often, we go "into the ministry" to reach people for Jesus...but as a result, we no longer have any contact with the world anymore. There's something wrong with that picutre, and I'm not sure this is how Jesus expects us to live it out.

John 1:14 says: "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood" (The Message). We can BE Christ in our own little corners of the world. We can show up, and we can get involved. We can make Jesus tangible for others. We can all live lives that are missional and incarnational. And we can do this anywhere! At work, at home, during playdates, around the table, at the grocery store.....anywhere along the way.

And we don't need to make it complicated. LIFE rarely happens in steps, programs, or logical sequences. Most of the time, it just happens. We just need to be ready with room enough in our schedule for those divine interruptions.

I am a busy mother of three and part time waittress. My husband and I are home based missionaries with U.S. Center for World Mission. I have no time to add anything else to my already overflowing plate. But this is no addition. This is a lifestyle and an identity. And it can happen anywhere and all the time.

Our words can bring hope, our homes can bring warmth, Christ can be in the food we serve and in the conversations we have. He can interrupt our schedules and our lives with moments that may change the destinies of families. We can be the blessing. We can multiply joy. We can bind the brokenhearted, and we can replace gladness for mourning. His purposes can become our purposes, and the things that break His heart can break ours. And do you know what else I think? I think that this blesses Him and brings Him just as much pleasure as anything huge and flashy that anyone else might do. We can live large in the Kingdom - even in our own little corners of the world!

He did. And He is the ultimate example.