To be bright, polished silver
I remember our sharing during that SFC meeting - so many of us wanted to be missionaries. I wasn't one of them. I eventually just want to be a loving wife and mother. (Nevertheless a working mother, but that's beside the point.)
It's odd, I wasn't even really thinking about it when I came across this article in Boundless (yes, the webzine again, as some of you may say) that states:
Looking back, I feel like all that time I was being pressured to impact my campus, evangelize my peers and do my part to change the world, nobody was teaching me to just be a man. I had so many obligations as a "raised Christian," that there was never really the freedom to explore the question of why I loved God. It only made sense that I wouldn't be much of a world-changer at all.
In my experience, the most noticeable Christianity is usually the most phony. The public face of our faith is crowded with whitewashed celebrities and spiritual fads, all vying for our attention, adoration and allegiance.
Frankly, I'd rather be a plain everyday man who loves a few people really well, and gives somebody an intimate glimpse of the real Jesus by giving them a look into the real me, the one God Himself is making just right.
I couldn't agree more. I mean, not that aspiring to become a missionary or evangelist is necessarily bad - just as long as it's authentic, and the integrity of the person isn't compromised.
I'd grown up in church, have heard so many messages of "transforming my generation" --
And I (had) hate(d) myself for being so mediocre. Always mediocre examination results, mediocre swimmer/gymnast/softballer, mediocre game player, mediocre friend, mediocre daughter - average in everything. So I just comfort myself because I know I had done my best.
In my head, it echoes: "Is my best really enough? Is it really my best?"
I guess it's funny to hear this from someone who's been leading others for nearly her whole life, all the way from primary school up till now; yet, honestly, it's relieving to know that someone feels the same way I do - wanting to impact the people just around me, for them to look in me and see God's image..
Some people are indeed called to a world-impacting service to Christ. Many of us will have to settle for something a little more ordinary. Love one person with the love of Christ, though, and you change their whole world. It may take a lifetime just to learn to do that. God gives some of us five talents and some of us just one. The return doesn't matter to Him as much as what happens in the hearts of His trusted servants.
God takes just as much pleasure in the bold history-maker who stands up for Him in the face of a rebellious world, as He does in the intimate, private decisions you make every day to move a little closer to Him, to love the people He's given you a little better. You might not get the whole world - or even your whole town - talking, but in the end the only words that matter are, "Well done."
It's odd, I wasn't even really thinking about it when I came across this article in Boundless (yes, the webzine again, as some of you may say) that states:
Looking back, I feel like all that time I was being pressured to impact my campus, evangelize my peers and do my part to change the world, nobody was teaching me to just be a man. I had so many obligations as a "raised Christian," that there was never really the freedom to explore the question of why I loved God. It only made sense that I wouldn't be much of a world-changer at all.
In my experience, the most noticeable Christianity is usually the most phony. The public face of our faith is crowded with whitewashed celebrities and spiritual fads, all vying for our attention, adoration and allegiance.
Frankly, I'd rather be a plain everyday man who loves a few people really well, and gives somebody an intimate glimpse of the real Jesus by giving them a look into the real me, the one God Himself is making just right.
I couldn't agree more. I mean, not that aspiring to become a missionary or evangelist is necessarily bad - just as long as it's authentic, and the integrity of the person isn't compromised.
I'd grown up in church, have heard so many messages of "transforming my generation" --
And I (had) hate(d) myself for being so mediocre. Always mediocre examination results, mediocre swimmer/gymnast/softballer, mediocre game player, mediocre friend, mediocre daughter - average in everything. So I just comfort myself because I know I had done my best.
In my head, it echoes: "Is my best really enough? Is it really my best?"
I guess it's funny to hear this from someone who's been leading others for nearly her whole life, all the way from primary school up till now; yet, honestly, it's relieving to know that someone feels the same way I do - wanting to impact the people just around me, for them to look in me and see God's image..
Some people are indeed called to a world-impacting service to Christ. Many of us will have to settle for something a little more ordinary. Love one person with the love of Christ, though, and you change their whole world. It may take a lifetime just to learn to do that. God gives some of us five talents and some of us just one. The return doesn't matter to Him as much as what happens in the hearts of His trusted servants.
God takes just as much pleasure in the bold history-maker who stands up for Him in the face of a rebellious world, as He does in the intimate, private decisions you make every day to move a little closer to Him, to love the people He's given you a little better. You might not get the whole world - or even your whole town - talking, but in the end the only words that matter are, "Well done."