Busy week coming up. B.U.S.Y.

We have our biggest event of the year for the office this Friday, between a business session during the day, and an award dinner and 2014 Kickoff Party that night. It’s a lot of work and a lot of details between handling the administrative part of the presentations, and being the party planner.

In the midst of this, my friend, Mary, graciously offered the opportunity to join in her latest writing project to our mutual friend Karen, and me. It’s a Bible Study on Authentic Friendship, and while Mary and Karen will be writing the study, I’m doing the companion devotional. It’s an amazing gift to us, and we have been feverishly working to meet the fast-approaching deadline (more info to come when I have it).

I’m kind of at that place where I toss and turn a lot at night, not because I’m uncomfortable, but because my mind won’t turn off. It just has too much to think about. But you know what I’ve been thinking about most?

One person.

With all the copious details and lists and deadlines, with the many, many words that are jumbled in my head like so much alphabet soup, it’s this one person to whom it always makes its way back. One person whom God has placed in my path and heart for right now. I know that it’s His doing because she would otherwise never choose me for a friend. People like me don’t fit in her world, and yet, here we are, and I’m bowled over that I even get to be a part of what He’s doing.

We are not here to consume ourselves with details and busyness, or even deadlines for exciting Kingdom work. He’s reminding me, through an unlikely relationship (His specialty), that, above all, the truest Kingdom work is right here, on the ground. In the trenches. I’m here to be His hands and feet, to be available so His light can shine into remote places and draw those it finds there to Himself. Just like the one lost sheep out of the hundred, He is still in the business of holding the 99 in safekeeping while He seeks out the one.

And we are called to join Him, you and me, because, in the midst of the many, that one is still what it’s really all about.

Whether we’re busy, or not.

“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.” Luke 15:4-7 MSG

“Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing.” John 14:12 MSG

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 ESV

“Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.” Galatians 2:20 MSG

“Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.” ~Saint Teresa of Avila (I don’t typically include quotes, but I LOVE this one!)

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