Below is a repost on outreach and ministry by a good friend of ours, Amanda Seibel. You can view her original article at The Splendid Ordinary, or read the post below.
Hey, so you’ve got a heart for ministry, and that’s a beautiful thing, but you’re looking around and wondering, “How?” How on earth will you ever make it work? Your heart is wrapped up tight, just waiting for when you make it to another point in life.
You might be saying something along the lines of, “Well, one day when I have a home of my very own.” Or, “One day when the kids have all gone and grown.”
Maybe it’s gotten to the point where you know that God can really use you for His gloriously big plan, but your season of life just isn’t quite right for it yet. You’ve got to reach a little further, or wait a little longer and then, then you’ll be able to do something, anything, for the Kingdom of Heaven.
You’re stuck here waiting for a someday, and then when that someday comes and turns into your today, then you’ll be free to live out the ministry that you’ve been dreaming up inside your mind.
But did you know that one of the greatest ways that the advancement of His great Kingdom can be stopped is through the words of “I’ll do that someday.”
Because the truth of it is, perfect never really will come to you until the day you step onto Heaven’s shores. Perfect never will arrive for you as long as your home is an earthly floor.
Yeah, it’s true, you really were made to do something. Not some distant day in the future, but every day that you are here on earth for.
So what is it that I’m trying to say here? That you should forget the responsibilities that are closing in around you every long and tiring day? That you should try your best to do it all, and while you’re at it, be sure to do it now?
If that were to be true, then you and I would be set up for nothing else but a whole lot of failure.
There are limits we face and there’s a real release when we come to terms with each and every one of those limits and give them to a limitless God.
So what do we do with the tension in our soul, the longing to be a Kingdom builder, and the reality of where we’re at in life?
Well, let me just encourage you to start asking God the question, “What can I do?”
Because sure, there might be a hundred different things that you really just can’t do today, but I bet you right here and now, that there are at least a few things that you surely can do.
Yeah, so it might not be what you had in mind. But ministry can come in a variety of shapes. Who’s to say you know just the right one, after all?
And friend, when you learn to just begin, there’s beauty unlimited that is about to explode right there within your mundane-looking life.
We trap ourselves unnecessarily when we think in only our own little human terms. We limit our already limited beings to a much higher level when we sit and do nothing when really we could at least go and do something.
If you don’t have a home of your own to invite another into, then find another little place that is “less than ideal,” and yet will actually make things work out quite nice.
If you’ve got kids running crazy and a mess in every room, bless another mom that’s feeling run down and invite her to join you right there in that mess, because she’s more than likely just as desperate for encouragement as you are today.
A whole world of opportunities begins to open wide when we ask ourselves what it is that we can do today instead of getting hung up on all that we can’t do. When we take our eyes off of the “no’s” and the restraints and when we’re willing to lay down what is ideal and learn to do what works well right here and now, we begin to breathe a little more freely and live a beautiful reality.
This world is in need of changing, and there are countless hearts that need another’s cheering, so don’t leave it all for someday when our todays could work as well.
