Sent
They said my Uncle Wayne carried a toolbox like a preacher carried a Bible.
My Uncle Wayne passed away a few years ago but I still think of him often. He was known for stopping and helping people on the side of the road, for watching out for the overlooked and marginalized, and for always lending a helping hand whenever needed no matter who needed it. I love that about him. I love that his legacy is one that lives on as someone who always looked out for others.
He once told a story about a woman he once met when leaving a gas station. When he saw her he asked her if she needed a ride and she got into his pickup truck. He could tell from her appearance that she could probably use some help so he reached in his wallet to give her some cash.
She asked, “I’m out here to try and make a little money, are you a cop?”
Wayne replied, “No, but I was sent here to give you this.”
As he offered her some money, she responded, “Out here people don’t give you money for nothing. What do you want?”
He said, “I don’t want anything. God sent me to you to give you this.”
That’s when she began to cry. She said, “How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“How did you know that today was my birthday?”
Wayne said, “I didn’t know, but God knew. And God has sent me to you”
Beliving vs. Practicing
This past Sunday was a day we call “Engage Sunday” at our church at Riverside. It’s a day where we don’t have a worship service in the traditional sense. Some people get a little bothered by that. But it’s a day we choose to spend serving. We believe we have a choice. We can either spend our days believing Jesus and the words of Jesus or we can choose to rearrange our lives around the words of Jesus and put them into practice.
Make no mistake, we absolutely believe Jesus is who He says He is and we believe every word He spoke is true. But we don’t want to stop at believing. We want His words to radically change and alter the trajectory of our lives. It’s our desire to put them into practice. We want to live different.
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
– Jesus, Matthew 20.28
Jesus himself once said that He didn’t come to be served, but to serve others and to lay down his life for the sake of others. If that was true for Jesus, shouldn’t that be true for us a well who call Jesus Lord?
Living with Holy Awareness
Today, God could very well be sending you to someone. You could very well be the answer to someone else’s prayer. It’s a holy thought to consider the reality that the God of the universe just might use you to bless someone else’s life.
It’s my prayer that you will live with that holy awareness. That you will live with your eyes wide open. May compassion be your first response. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and interrupt your day for the sake of another. And maybe just maybe God will use you and me to make a difference in someone’s life for their good and for His ultimate glory.
What would your life look like if you believed that God could use you and that God might be sending you to someone He wants to help?
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