Her name is Anna.
That is the only other thing I know
about her. It is kinda sad really. We literally spent days
together.
We laughed, she watched me cry, she
saw me pray, she watched me walk out when I just couldn't take it
anymore.
She was always …..there.
When alarms would sound or questions arise, she was the voice of calm during a very unnerving time. Anna had never met my family. She knew nothing of the “Argos.” She had no knowledge of our history or our story. She was simply the nurse assigned to care for my mom.
She was more than a medical
professional tending to the needs of the sick, Anna was amazing.
She knew just what to do, and just what
to say in those long days sitting, simply waiting. There is no
doubt in my mind that one of the most lonely places in the world is
in a hospital room.
She would encourage me, teach me, and
lead me back again to hope. When fear or doubt would begin to creep
in, she knew at that moment how to chase it away.
She taught me how to feed my mom when
she couldn't even eat. She would stay right beside me when I told
her I was scared .…...because mom would choke on everything.
She would even sit there with mom so we
could leave the room. She would say “ I won't leave her, I
promise.”
She was entertained by our family
stories when she knew we needed to laugh. She would listen as we
recounted God's faithfulness because she knew WE needed to
hear it again ….outloud.
Oh, and she melted my daddy's heart.
She would tolerate his banter, and his sometimes seemingly
stubbornness, just to pull me aside and tell me what a rare love we
were in the presence of.
I said “other” thing, because I know this one thing about Anna. She is a minister. She exemplified being “ the hands and feet of Jesus.”
My family was the mission field that
week, and she was the missionary.
I guess this is the first time I
can remember, in a long time, when the mission field was.... me.
I have heard it all
my life. I have even done it....with gusto! We commission
missionaries, we go on mission trips, we plan for projects in the
name of the Great Commission.... and I support it.
But, I think there is more to it. When I look at the life of Jesus, the daily accounts are when the ministry took place. It was in the "ordinariness" of his Divinity that HE touched people. We don't see him going farther than about 40 miles from home, but when HE went, he was on purpose, and changed everything with His presence.
A life on mission.
A different way to view each day with purpose. To wake up and look
around at the world God has placed me in and ask myself this
question...
"
How can I
bless another in such a way that they want hear about the Jesus I
have found?”
To not get so bogged down in the tasks of the day that I miss my mission field.
That may mean in the middle of Wal-mart, in the drive thru at McDonalds, at the church, or even in my own kitchen.....those are my mission fields.
Let's face it...It is easy to be
Jesus and proclaim His name to strangers who have never seen you have
a bad day.
It is much more
difficult to ask your child's forgiveness when you both know you have
royally screwed up.
Honestly, for me,
it is easier to go on a mission project half-way around the world than to be Jesus in my own
classroom.
The cost is simply greater in the daily.
“Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria and then the utmost parts of the earth....” Acts
1:8
I think God
purposefully put the instructions in that order because ….well,
that is the hard way.
He knew that we had to get the difficult parts down first.
He knew that we had to get the difficult parts down first.
The calling of
mission is for us all. The ministry lifestyle is corporate. We are
all on mission with each choice we make. We wake up everyday with
the unbelievable opportunity to “ Go into all the world.....”
Go to your
Jerusalem first, wherever that may be.
Remembering that sometimes “the world” begins within your own arm's reach.
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