Indispensable

As my time comes to an end (I head back home in just about a month to do some planning and preparing for my future over here) I can't help, but be filled with mixed emotions.  I'm excited to be home and spending time with friends and family.  However, I feel that I've just begun to scratch the surface with the young ladies I am blessed to spend time with.  I want to help them, reveal Christ and His love to them, and invest in them, their lives, and their futures.

However, what I am constantly reminding myself is the simple, yet profound truth that although I and others come and go, God was here before any of us came, has been here while we have, and will be here once we've left.  So many times we can get into this thought process of, "What'll happen while I'm gone?"    This is such a dangerous mindset to get into because the ministry doesn't begin and end with any of us.  We are simply who God chooses to work through, but He doesn't even need us, but rather He wants us.


No one is indispensable.

Now some people might hear that and be appalled.  If that's you and you're still reading I'm not sorry.  This is not to be harsh to anyone, but more a self-check that I need to call myself out on every now and again because if I'm thinking it all begins and ends with me then I'm saying it's all about me and God's not in it, but my true heart's desire is that I step out of the way and let God do His thing, whether that includes me or not because I'm not indispensable.

These are things you think about when you're leaving a ministry for a time.  One thing I know is true is although I am replaceable, there is One man who is not, and it's the only man known to be fully man and fully God.  This ministry would not be possible without the sacrifice, love, ministry, truth, and power of Jesus Christ, He is the only, and always will be the only, indispensable One, ever.  

When you truly grasp that fact, that you are replaceable, IT'S FREEING!  Christ gave us freedom, even in ministry He has freed us so that if we simply choose to let Him work through us, we don't have to depend on ourselves, but His power working through us to reach those for Him.  Such a comfort because I know I am weak, but I have really been hit with the reality that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  And that could not be more true than in this ministry to young women I have the blessing of being a part of because I am the most unlikely candidate for that ministry, yet God has put it on my heart, and I love that because I constantly have to lean on Him, and that is a great comfort.

Be encouraged by the fact that you are replaceable.  It doesn't begin and end with you.  Christ sent the Holy Spirit to us as a help, not a hindrance.  Christ doesn't need us, but He wants us and wants to use us.  Christ frees us from trying to do it on our own strength (which will fail), but with Him on our team, we can't fail.  It's not our efforts, strength, or willpower, but Christ in us.  Now that's a relief, because I know me and my imperfections, insecurities, insufficiencies...Thank God He sent Christ and the Holy Spirit.