Jan 23, 2017
by Michaella Osborn
Boulder SDB Church, CO
This summer I had the opportunity to serve on an SCSC project in Jamaica. I’ve had a passion for cross-cultural ministry for as long as I can remember, but this was my first experience actually doing it. When I got home I remember feeling like now that I’ve had this experience my life would magically change. I thought that I might do a better job keeping up with a consistent Bible study, find a new ministry to get involved in, or have a greater passion for my church. Essentially, I thought that five weeks doing ministry in a different country would make up for my own inconsistencies and shortcomings.
I feel like a lot of us do this — right? Something exciting happens and it’s easy to see God at work or to trust in Him. But when we get back to everyday life, it’s hard again. It gets a little harder when I’m just going to work or school hoping for the next adventure. For me, when my life is boring, God feels far away. But the thing that I’ve been learning this year is that God feels far away because of my own habits and lack of focus on Him, not because of the fact that I’m home. It’s easy for me to be passionate about God when I’m in a place that I feel called and fulfilled. However, there are times in everyday life, when I am not doing ministry, that I’m almost resentful of the fact that I’m not to a certain point in my life yet.
I hear this from other people all the time. This feeling of having important things to do for the Kingdom, but not getting to do it yet, can stick with you. It’s a feeling of wanting to fast forward through all of the growth and exploration and just be where we are supposed to be. It’s hard to work on the “here” when you want to be “there.” When I get particularly discouraged with these kinds of feelings, I think about Ruth.
In her situation, it would have been really easy to just ignore God and focus on surviving — and hope that someday her life would be different. But that isn’t what she did. She sought God’s will when it meant traveling far away from her home with her mother- in-law. Even in the monotonous labor of gathering wheat by hand, she was faithful in the tasks given to her. If Ruth can do that, I can probably make time to pray and read my Bible when I get home from work or school. I think, as young adults, we are almost wired to have these big dreams and passions so we have something to work towards. However, it’s putting in the work during these years, to actively seek God and learn to be faithful in the mundane, that gives us the foundation to be able to follow those passions and achieve the dreams.
