Catalyst Track: Daring to Hope // Day Two

This week’s 3-day track comes from the book, Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful, written by Katie Davis Majors.

Sometimes we feel that we’re carrying the knife, climbing that mountain with our faces set against the wind and wondering all along the way why God would call us to this, how He could ask this of us. But years later, I know this to be undeniably true: God, who did not spare His own Son, will provide what we need, when we need it, even when we do not know what we need or that we need it.

In this 3-day track, Katie challenges us to share life with others. She reminds us that God constantly invites us to know Him more so that we may share Him more.

Whether it be sharing the pain of suffering or the joys of life, remember that you are in it together with Christ. Take the next few days to recognize ways in which you can share life with others and offer a helping hand.

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Day 2: New Vision

 

Years ago I began to pray over all those God brought into our home a prayer I had often whispered to Him in regard to my daughters: “Father, give me Your eyes for them. Give me your eyes for this man, this woman, this child. Show me how You see each one.” And without a doubt, though not always immediately, God answers a prayer such as this. Does He not long for us to receive one another, to love one another, to care for one another, in the same way He cares for them? Does He not want us to see each other with new eyes and new hearts?

 

And if compassion truly means to suffer with, then seeing our visitors with new eyes, being compassionate as He is compassionate, is not to pity, not to extend a hand of charity, but to be truly broken, to feel gut- wrenching pain when we see others suffer. In this way, maybe we are not called to alleviate suffering (as I had once imagined) as much as we are called to enter into the suffering of others and walk with them through it. We mourn with those who mourn, we weep with those who weep, we cry out with them for something better.

 

My Western ideals of ministry and even missionary work would have, at one time, kept a separation between personal life and ministry, between home and work. But the longer our family abides with and among others who are more materially needy, but truly only just as desperate for Christ as we are, the more this separation seems not only unbiblical but impossible. Life was certainly intended to be lived as ongoing ministry, not separate from ministry. Of course, the more I asked my Father God to give me His eyes for the people He brought into our life and home, the more He confirmed that He did not view anyone as the next ministry project or person to be evangelized but as someone just like me who needed to be lavished with His undeserved, unmerited blessing, love, and favor. He was changing my vision, again giving me eyes to see that we most deeply experience His beauty when we walk with others in the darkness.

 

REFLECT:

When has the Lord helped you to experience his beauty when walking with others in the darkness? Share your thoughts in the comments below.