Mundane Ministry

One of my favorite posts from last fall and I have been thinking about this idea of "mundane ministry" again this fall. Let me know in the comments how this post impacted you or if you were encouraged by it. Know someone who would love this post? Share it with a friend!

Priscilla Schirer one of my favorite Christian speakers has a talk where she talks about how we all have a ministry, no matter what. It has probably been one of the most impactful sermons I have heard in the last few years. She talks about how no matter whether you are a mother, college student, office worker, or teacher you have a ministry. But how often do we view our life through this lens? Do we live from this perspective?

The Bible tells us to do all we do as working unto the Lord, but is that how we approach dishes, folding that laundry or getting dinner on the table? Or are you like me and more prone to saying things along the lines of..."I don't bring much to the table." Or "I am not skilled enough." "I am not sure I have a purpose" or "What I do doesn't make that much of a difference." We are probably all guilty of falling into this trap of thinking, at least once in a while. However, I bet your family would notice if you didn't make dinner or everyone suddenly ran out of clean clothes to wear. What if you chose not to show up for your job? Who wouldn't get served. If you don't pursue that degree or dream that God has placed on your heart, who is going to fulfill that mission? We all have a purpose and we all have a ministry.

The best part is, is God has already given you the platform. Take stock of what you have. Write a list of a typical day or week. Who do you see? Who do you serve? What interactions do you have? Now pray over it. Where is God calling you to step out of viewing it as mundane and stepping in to seeing it as ministry?

There is a Pastor at my home church who is very diligent at saying "I get to" not "I have to" and it's quite a perspective shift, especially if you apply it to tasks that you don't want to do or when the list of to-dos are overwhelming. I get to wash these dishes that are the physical proof that my family ate a meal or I get to go to work to provide for my family and meet our needs. I get to wash this laundry because we played hard today and made memories. I get to go to this meeting, gathering, and connect with others as we pour into each other. Our life is an opportunity and a gift and so often I take that for granted.

God didn't need us, we need God.

God desired us, we should desire God.

As I was pondering this topic of everything we do being our ministry and how our thoughts often drift to giving from scarcity, I was reminded of two stories of Jesus. The first one, where the large crowd has assembled and instead of sending them away. He provides food for them from the boy's offering of two loaves of bread and five fishes. The disciples see this and they know that it isn't enough, but what does Jesus do? He gives thanks to God, He asks a blessing over it. Then that meager amount of food is given to the crowd, everyone eats until they are full and there are baskets leftover. Where we see scarcity, God sees abundance. What God blesses will be enough and often even more than we expected.

The second story I was reminded of is after Jesus has died on the cross and rose again. The disciples after all the emotional events, have gone fishing. The fish all night and catch nothing. If I were them that is when the negative self-talk would start and there definitely would be grumbling. Jesus calls from shore and tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. They catch more than their nets can hold. Are there areas in our life where we are fishing on the wrong side of the boat? When we bring our efforts to Jesus and allow Him to guide us, it leads to abundance.

As women we are often the homemakers and cultivators of the atmosphere of our home. Are we creating it out of abundance or scarcity? What affect does that have on those around us? How does it bleed out into other areas of our lives? I want to challenge us to start living from abundance. Start with practical areas of your life, you probably already have a stirring in your heart of an area that could shift. Let's see how stepping back, relinquishing and letting God guide us, takes our ministry from seemingly mundane to multiplied. Multiplied joy, multiplied expectancy, multiplied grace, multiplied freedom, multiplied opportunity, multiplied peace.

Thanks for sticking around for this rambling thought post. I hope your start of September is treating you well. Let me know in the comments what you were inspired to do from this post or any ways that God has shifted your perspective. For me it has allowed me to not be as stressed.

Have a great week dear friend and I will be back to chat with you next Wednesday!