People Look Like Trees

I worked this week for four days. I haven’t worked in 6 months. I am retired. This is my on-call job, at the Church I attend. My goal for retirement was to get into ministry. So, there I was…finally doing “ministry”. I’ve wanted to work in ministry for a very long time and there I was!

Now, reflecting back, I realize I was doing my same old work habits. I get so focused on my work and what I’m doing, I forget the people around me. There were times I didn’t look up when one of them would come and get coffee. The coffee is right outside my work space, the only thing between me and the coffee pot is a big glass window. I would see someone out there or walking by and I wouldn’t look up.

It reminds me of the time Jesus healed a blind man and he was only partially healed.
“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go into the village.” Mark 8:22-25”

I am like the blind man, I see people, but I don’t see them clearly. I glance or look or see them out of my peripheral vision, but I don’t take the time to see them as a person. I see them as a tree, just a vertical object.

What I do is not “ministry” if I forget the people. What I do and the work I accomplish is nothing if I don’t have love. When I thought I would someday work in ministry, the work is not what I desired. It was the people I desired and the things Jesus would do through me to affect His Kingdom and His people.

When working in a church and thinking of the ministry that happens here, I tend to think the people affected by the ministry and who it’s for are the people outside the doors; the members, attenders and the seekers. I don’t think of my co-workers as the recipients of my ministry because they are doing ministry too. But, that is wrong and it is sin. All I do should be ministry, that’s the kind of life I desire. I want that life, that heart attitude. I want every thought, action, word and motion to be ministry. When I pray “Thy Kingdom come” it means right here, right now, to the piece of ground that my feet are on at this moment and every moment.

I blew it, and I will continue to blow it each and every time if I don’t have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. My prayer is to make my life a ministry, to live the Kingdom life.