Skip to main content

One Person

I had particularly high expectations for one sister that God brought into my life last year. After some persistent asking, she signed up for the retreat last minute which gave me hope. And yet as we returned back to campus yesterday, I couldn't help but get frustrated and impatient as nothing seemed to have changed. I couldn't understand why God wouldn't rescue and heal her NOW, but then came across this parable in Matthew 20:
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’  
But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
What if she doesn't receive Christ into her life until she's 50? Well, the reward will be the same, and she'd be able to minister to others who don't discover Christ until later in life as well.

I have a hard time balancing proactively following up with people vs. pushing them away with my attempts. Learning to step back from people and pray to our almighty father instead.

One Desire Fast 2013: Less food, more prayer & reflection instead. Here we go!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And just when you least expect it..

Today I went down to the food court with another intern and as I opened my box of sushi, I hesitated. Feeling as if there were too many eyes on me (I only ate with one other person -_-), I questioned whether I should pray before my meal, in fear of social rejection. After I prayed, she asked me if I was a Christian, and I awkwardly responded that I was. Then she said, "Finally! What a relief to know that there are other Christians!" WHAT THE.. I couldn't believe it. Here I was, sitting with a co-worker that I had simply exchanged cordial greetings with, now talking about God haha. Even though I was scared and honestly did NOT want to pray, God used a habitual thing like that to open up opportunities for me to invite her to small group and share my faith. Crazy how He works when you least expect it.
5 comments
Read more

Delirious

delirious (adj): marked by uncontrollable excitement or emotion; ecstatic; filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy (1 peter 1:8); me I don't think I had a personal relationship with God until 2 weeks ago. There have been a lot of formative moments and experiences in the past 6 years of me considering the existence of a higher-being, 3 yrs of being a Christian, 1 year of living by faith, 6 months of serving on church leadership, 1 month of dire circumstances, each of which have been challenged and supported by specific instances in my life.* But it's only been 2 weeks of finding pure joy, satisfaction, and freedom in Christ (alone). Though it's been 6 years since I first stepped into a church building and 3 years since I accepted Christ, I was always afraid to admit that I didn't know what grace, freedom, repentance, or Jesus meant--in terms other than the ones I had heard or read--it was always a theory and never a reality in my own life. After years of doing chur...
5 comments
Read more

I love my car

I've been really enjoying my time driving this week. The week started off freaking out about the warning light to check my tire pressure (and fill my gas tank), but after I took care of that I think I just had a greater appreciation of my car. Even though driving 90 miles/day is never ideal, I've come to (on occasion)appreciate my long commutes. Throughout the past eight months, my commutes have been awesome times for me to memorize verses, catch-up with Hyeri, or actually pray for the people on my dinky prayer card. That little vehicle has served as a sanctuary for me and sometimes even with other people. I distinctly remember a time last year when I had an emergency breakdown session with a friend in her car. We only ended up there because both of our apartments were at-the-time occupied--but man that time venting and praying in a confined vehicle was sweet. Even though I had previously been very adamant about not owning a car (why pay the fixed costs of car insurance, variab...
3 comments
Read more