Wherever you are, be all there. – Jim Elliot
These words were a reminder to me while I was in the DR this past year. They are even more of a reminder to me today.
After returning from an exhausting yet fulfilling yearlong journey of studies and missions, I came home with nothing to do.
No job to fill my time, friends in different places, seemingly no purpose.
I came back to a very quiet home in the familiar suburbs.
After filling my days with visits to homes, talking and praying with people in need. I came home to a place where people seem to have all they need.
I came and went to two very different places. But my purpose remains the same.
I am here. Wherever here is for you, be all there.
God will use you. He is using you right now whether you realize it or not.
So as I sit around my house, doing whatever my family needs to be done. I’m all here. I don’t dwell on the fact that I could be there. Or that life seems better over in that place. That maybe I could be better used over there. Really, comparison just inhibits us from fully living. (tweet this)
I choose to be all here. Praying and serving and loving and learning.
Paul writes in Philippians 4:11b “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Even Paul, the great apostle, had to learn how to live contently. He lives through the energy, the strength, the guidance of the Spirit within him. The same Spirit that in within us and unites us.
It’s not a mistake that you are where you are right now. No matter how you got there or where you’re going. It’s where God will use you. Christ is impacting others through you. He is building His Kingdom here.
Where is your ‘here’ and how are you being all ‘there’?
I was recently laid off and have spent every day over the last two weeks at home, surfing the web and applying for jobs. As my kids are older and in public school, it’s just me. I wonder if God is still using me, in this transitional place. Thankful I came across your post.
What a great lesson! Simple, but easily forgotten. I was in that place of ‘not being there. But here’ while recovery from cancer and chemo. I learned that “It is What it Is” and could be content.
Thanks!
Jessinia, thank you for such sweet words on contentment. I love reading how God has brought you from overseas back to the states and how much of a transition that is. But always be encouraged by your words, that God is using you to build His kingdom here and now.
My answer to your question is going to sound really silly. Right now my husband and I are house sitting for friends of ours while they are out of town. We are starting to get really comfortable in their spacious, 4 bedroom house. When they come back, we will have to move back to our cozy little 1 bedroom apartment. I’m trying to learn to just be content with where I am at and what I have instead of dreading going back to our small space.
I’m learning that I need to be content in my finances and know that God can use me here in the suburbs even though I do not make as much as most of those around us.