Our yearly mission trip is fast approaching and I have been working tirelessly this week to make sure we have everything we need for a great week. Paperwork handed in - check. First aid kits stocked - check. Emergency contact information for parents - check. Binders for leaders - check. I'm sure if you're going on the trip you've also got your own checklist of things to do before Sunday at 5am!
With all the preparation for the trip I may have forgotten one little thing - preparing my heart for a week of service and learning about how I can better love God and God's creation! If anyone else is anything like me, this may have been left off your to-do list as well.
A mission trip is an intense experience. Living with 70 other people, sharing bedrooms and bathrooms and dining rooms and pretty much everything else except for the bathroom stall. Waking up early, staying up late. Five-minute showers at 4:00pm. Long mornings and afternoons full of work projects. And what's that smell? (Hint: it's probably you.) It's understandable that this can be an overwhelming experience!
But you're here for a reason - and it's to change your heart. Yes, you're here to make a difference and to help out. You will meet amazing people. You will hear incredible life stories. You will paint a house. You will clean up a park. You will serve food for the hungry. But more important than the things you are doing is the way you are opening yourself up to feeling and doling out God's love in a new place and in new ways.
How open is your heart? Are you open to making new friends? Are you open to sitting next to someone different than you, from somewhere different, who might dress differently, who might smell differently, who might live differently? Are you open to seeing Jesus in the face of every single person you come across? Because that's where Jesus lives, you know. Not just in you, but in me, too, and in every single one of us. Is your heart open to that?
This week we will focus on the verse from John 3:30: Jesus must become more important, while I become less important.
What does that mean to you? How will you make Jesus more important this week, and yourself less? Pray that God will open your heart and work through you to love those you come across. Don't forget - add that to your to-do list!
See you Sunday...
No comments:
Post a Comment