The Lord's Power Witnessed in the Ordinary
Week one is officially over. It's a little bitter sweet to say that I can check that off of my list but I'm grateful for the work of the Lord in such a short amount of time.
The country of Costa Rica is truly one of the most incredible places I have ever been. The people here are so genuine and the nature is next-level beautiful (you can literally see a volcano smoking from our backyard). I've fallen in love with this country and it might be a little difficult to get me back to the states.
On the ministry side of things, I can tell you that the Lord surprised me with how I would be serving this country. I don't want to lie to you, I expected to be preaching to the little kiddos and leading massive worship sessions in the park while random people joined along. However, when I got here, I quickly noticed that our ministry revolved around everyday things like painting a recycling center and cleaning up the backyard of a boys home. I guess the best way to put it is that I expected my service to be glamorous. It was during this first week that the Lord opened my eyes to His work in the ordinary.
This really had me asking myself the question: "if the Lord works in the ordinary here in Costa Rica, then why do I doubt His work back in NM?" I think that so often, we wait for the Lord to move a mountain before we believe He is working in our lives. Then, when mountains aren't being moved and things appear to remain the same, we become frustrated and question His presence and His goodness. When in reality, He is always working. Instead of moving a mountain, He may be moving a small rock but I can guarantee you that He Only moved a rock for a specific reason and it's all in His timing.
The Lord is so funny in the way that He takes a extraordinary situation and makes it ordinary. Then He asks you to look for the incredible. When you really think about it, the Lord is the truest sense of the word "incredible" which means He's calling us to search for Him in the small things. Even if those small things look like my weird ministries where I am painting fences or grading papers in an elementary school.
Over the past week, I've learned that God is on the move in mighty ways but also ordinary ways. The Spirit has called me to listen to His voice and act on what He is saying and I challenge you to do the same. At training camp, we had a speaker who put it perfectly: there really isn't any such thing as a conscience, it's the Holy Spirit convicting you to do something. So consider this your call to action: listen for the Holy Spirit and let Him guide you in the ordinary, everyday things. You'll realize how often He truly is with you (spoiler alert: He's ALWAYS with you) and how often He desires to guide your steps.
In Christ,
Sydney.
The country of Costa Rica is truly one of the most incredible places I have ever been. The people here are so genuine and the nature is next-level beautiful (you can literally see a volcano smoking from our backyard). I've fallen in love with this country and it might be a little difficult to get me back to the states.
On the ministry side of things, I can tell you that the Lord surprised me with how I would be serving this country. I don't want to lie to you, I expected to be preaching to the little kiddos and leading massive worship sessions in the park while random people joined along. However, when I got here, I quickly noticed that our ministry revolved around everyday things like painting a recycling center and cleaning up the backyard of a boys home. I guess the best way to put it is that I expected my service to be glamorous. It was during this first week that the Lord opened my eyes to His work in the ordinary.
This really had me asking myself the question: "if the Lord works in the ordinary here in Costa Rica, then why do I doubt His work back in NM?" I think that so often, we wait for the Lord to move a mountain before we believe He is working in our lives. Then, when mountains aren't being moved and things appear to remain the same, we become frustrated and question His presence and His goodness. When in reality, He is always working. Instead of moving a mountain, He may be moving a small rock but I can guarantee you that He Only moved a rock for a specific reason and it's all in His timing.
The Lord is so funny in the way that He takes a extraordinary situation and makes it ordinary. Then He asks you to look for the incredible. When you really think about it, the Lord is the truest sense of the word "incredible" which means He's calling us to search for Him in the small things. Even if those small things look like my weird ministries where I am painting fences or grading papers in an elementary school.
Over the past week, I've learned that God is on the move in mighty ways but also ordinary ways. The Spirit has called me to listen to His voice and act on what He is saying and I challenge you to do the same. At training camp, we had a speaker who put it perfectly: there really isn't any such thing as a conscience, it's the Holy Spirit convicting you to do something. So consider this your call to action: listen for the Holy Spirit and let Him guide you in the ordinary, everyday things. You'll realize how often He truly is with you (spoiler alert: He's ALWAYS with you) and how often He desires to guide your steps.
In Christ,
Sydney.
Thank you for the reminders of seeing God work in the ordinary. That is great insight to realize that there is so much He is showing us in the small and humble ways of everyday life.
ReplyDeleteLove you sweetie. Keeping you in our prayers.
Brenda for Matt too