Day 28

Day 28:  My Mission Field

       All of my life I feel I was called to work in the mission field.  As a small child I wanted to be a nun and work in an orphanage.  Then in my early teen years I knew I wanted to be a nurse and mom, but still had a powerful feeling that I was to do mission work.  I knew God had put this on my heart.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Ephesians 2:10

       When I met my husband and we were married, life became very busy and fast.  I still thought about mission work but knew I wouldn’t be able to do the type of mission work I wanted to do at that time.  I put the work on the back burner, even though it still burned in my heart.  Over the years we did work in each of the communities we lived in with soup kitchens and homeless shelters among others. 

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

       I wanted to go to a poor country and help the orphans and widows.  God had a different plan.  I didn’t go to a mission field that was desolate and in despair as I had envisioned.  We found ourselves in a place where people calculate success based on their personal performance.  They are many times rising in the social realm of fame and finances in a extreme way.  We found our mission field in Major League Baseball.  What?  I had not desire to be in a mission field of wealthy young men and women who were in need of nothing.  These people are not in desperation for Jesus.  They have food and shoes. I wanted hungry shoeless children to serve.

       We are very happy to be part of the baseball family.  However, it took a while to see that this was the mission field God wanted to use us in to do Immeasurably More through us.  Once I evaluated my heart and truly listened for what God wanted me to do for Him, I enjoy our mission field.  There is a need, they NEED Christ.  We ALL need Christ, the flesh counts for nothing, it is not what WE do but what HE does.

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” John 6:63

       We were fortunate to be involved in a World Series.  After we won I saw one of our players who had been a large contributor to the wins, standing by himself watching the team celebrate.  I walked up to him, congratulated him and asked if he was ok.  His response sticks with me as I serve in the mission field God has placed me in.  His response was, “I am just standing here thanking Jesus that I have Him.  I have always wanted this,” he gestured to the celebration of a World Series win, “but if this was all the hope I had it would be over in less than an hour.  I have Jesus and His hope for eternity.”

       I work in the mission field that Jesus has given me with that thought, ‘I have Jesus and His hope for eternity.’  No matter the wins or losses, the success or injuries, the fame or money, I want them all to know the hope of Jesus.  I have accepted the mission work that God has given me to display His glory in the Immeasurably More He is doing through me!

       Are you hanging on to a Mission Field that the Lord hasn’t prepared for you?  Do you need to submit to the work God has for you at this time?  Look at the place the Lord has placed you and evaluate the mission field the Lord has you in to display His glory in the Immeasurably More He wants to do through you!