Finding the Perfect Fit

I have never been good at puzzles.  From the time I was young I never had the patience to match each piece together to create the big picture.  Often, in frustration I would resort to trying to force pieces together.  Sometimes if the two pieces were part of a sky or something of a solid color, it seemed like it would be fine in the end.  I learned that in order to get the puzzle to look the best, each piece need to find where it fit so that when they're all in place and you step back, you can see what the puzzle was intended to look like.
Interestingly enough, my life has looked similar to this situation.  I sometimes try so hard to force myself to fit into a section of the puzzle.  This can be in a social group, an area of ministry or even at work.  I do this because it is where I believe I can be the most effective.  When I find that I am forcing myself into a portion of the puzzle that I do not belong to it can be easy for me to give up, but I remember that the one in charge of the puzzle is putting everything together.  He is the Lord and in His time he will place me exactly where I am supposed to be.  Once He does that, the picture is complete and it is beautiful.  Allow the Lord to place you in the place where you become a part of the picture that He is trying to create through His church.

The Ministry of Availability

I was asked by my pastor to share about the College Ministry that I am helping lead.  Basically he wanted me to share for 3 to 5 minutes about what we’re all about and ways that people can get involved.  When I began to think about it, I could list out a few tasks that we do such as our meeting once a month and the small group that has formed, but it didn’t seem to convey what we are attempting to accomplish.  

As I thought about it, I came up what type of ministry we do.  We do the ministry of availability.  Most of the things we do create a space for our college students to grow in an unofficial way.  Our ministries are unconventional ones.  We have ministry through texts checking up weekly or daily with our students.  We spend time meeting our students where they are at.  We do campus visits for students that are not in the immediate area.  We will go and encourage our students who are involved in on-campus ministries by visiting their groups and participating with them.  We will go on campus with our students and eat dinner with them in the commons or take them off campus to get away for a little bit.  We will sit with them and study.  In the midst of this we get the opportunity to see how the Lord is leading them and have great opportunities to have solid spiritual conversations.  When we are able to meet one on one with students we have opportunities to open the bible and share scripture.  It is often that on a Sunday I will have the week completely open.  At the end of the week I look back and may have had one evening open.

I simply want God to send me to whom he will send me to.  As Isaiah 6:8 says:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

The ministry of availability is based on being available and willing to meet the students where they are at.  Though we are not often a large group, we do our best being resources to help our students get involved in different and continue to grow in their spiritual walks in and in maturity.