I recently heard a youth outreach worker speak about spending time with kids who lived on the streets of Toronto. Tim Huff had such an awesome word to share about being willing to be broken by God to be used by Him to reach others who were brokenhearted. But Tim said something else that really stayed with me. He mentioned that those of us who work with people who are broken have compassion for them, but this should also reach to our fellow workers. Do we realize that those around us need us to be encouragers, lifters, shoulders to cry on, and freedom-speakers into their lives?

The Lord has led me into social work in a way that I know it is my ‘mission-field’. However, sometimes I am so caught up in the world of administration that I have very little direct contact with the beneficiaries of our agency. I sometimes wonder whom I am supposed to minister to. Now I realize that it is those I come into contact with every day: my friends, my coworkers, and the janitor who empties my garbage.

Jesus didn’t wait until He traveled 100 miles before He began to minister. He healed, taught, fed, and prayed for whomever He met. He didn’t decide that He was going to focus on urban missions, overseas missions or national missions. His mission field was right around Him.

I wonder if we realize the mission field not only in our workplace, but also in our own church? Recent studies show that at least half of the people faithfully attending church are not Christians with a personal faith. It would appear that we have some evangelizing to do in the next pew.

If we stop to really look around at those we share hymnbooks with, we realize that many people need healing, teaching, feeding, love and hope. We don’t have to go across the world or to the downtown core to find those who are addicted, poor, homeless, depressed, friendless or even suicidal. And it is shocking to some that it is not necessarily the unsaved that are drowning in a desperate situation.

Isaiah said that the Lord would “Provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

There are people we worship with who grieve, who are in the ashes of despair, and who mourn. There are people we work with who live through situations we may never dream of and who need a kind word or a note of encouragement.

Have you been called to be a minister of the Good News? Jesus said we were to go and make disciples. Whether you go overseas or go across the road to preach ‘good news to the poor…to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners’, you are fulfilling the call to His mission field.

Some are called to go and some are called to stay. I am realizing more and more that none of us are called to do nothing. We have the Good News and we have the Answer. If we have a cupboard full of food and someone comes to us begging to be fed, how dare we just pray and ask God to fill the need while we do nothing?

May we all open the eyes of our heart to the needs of those around us. May we be willing to be broken to understand the brokenness of others and may we be willing to offer the hope that is within us.

Will You Go Or Will You Stay? (May 2008)