I have this vivid memory of being at a worship event at my university where we sang Isaiah’s famous words, Here I am, Lord, send me. I remember feeling completely ready for wherever the Lord wanted me to go. In this pivotal moment of my faith journey, I had a deep understanding that God would take me somewhere uncomfortable. I still wanted to go and I continued to go back to this prayer often.
Many years into praying this, I landed in a tiny village in Germany. No good friends, no thriving “ministry” like I had imagined, and definitely not what I’d expected all those years ago.
A dear friend in the states who struggled in a similar way texted me one day and shared with me a quote about being in God’s will. It essentially said that I am exactly where God wants me to be, and I know this simply because I am here; if God wanted me somewhere else, I would be somewhere else.
It struck me. Is it possible that I’m already where God wants me? That he’s already sent me?
God tenderly continues to show me I already am where he wants. I don’t get the message after one reminder, unfortunately! There is an appropriate time when God calls people to certain work, but what if he called me here? Just here. Home with my kids, doing the same things everyday?
It’s given me a great peace in the midst of an almost overwhelming longing. I’ve always wanted to do big things, but being here doesn’t mean I’m not. One day at a time and one small moment at a time, I’m slowly bringing order to a chaotic world. I’m bringing a bit of redemption to a broken world. I’m showing my children that God is faithful and loving as I faithfully do the task that is in front of me.
Maybe God has brought you into circumstances that you never wished or imagined for yourself. Do you understand that as you move forward and faithfully do what’s in front of you that you are reflecting God’s loving care? Even if what you are able to do is something so small and redundant that you cannot believe it makes a difference, it does. Every little and mundane action counts because we are privileged to be a part of a bigger Story.
It’s a question that has been mulling in my head for a while now—what does this faithfulness look like in my daily life? How does that look in your job or family life or recovery from sickness?
I think I’ll be figuring out the answer to these questions all my life, especially as our lives change. But the first thing we can do as we wrestle with these questions is to recognize that we are where he’s sent us and that he calls us to faithfulness. How it is worked out in each life and season and personality differs.
I leave you with Elisabeth Elliott’s wise words from Passion and Purity:
“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person’s seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.”
