Practice what you preach

As a pastor, part of my job is to stand before the church each Sunday and speak a message to the congregation about being followers of Jesus.  As a Christian (and as a pastor), my job is also to seize opportunities to show others about being followers of Jesus.  Sunday I will tell them as I always do, and this week God is calling Diane and I to show people what that looks like in action.

I’ve tried my best to discern whether God would have me go to Long Island, NY on a mission trip with Samaritan’s Purse next week.  And while going/not going has been back and forth and back and forth for the past two months, and while I’ve shut the door on going on numerous occasions, and while I still have reasons not to go, God seems to be holding that door open.  And I think He wants Diane and I to walk through it.  And the final decision for me was my own words coming back to bite me:  “I’ve never personally known of anyone who went on a mission trip and regretted it.”

Sunday I will talk to the congregation about Jesus’ call to give all of ourselves to Him and then Sunday afternoon, Diane and I will drive to New York to show them what that means for us.  I want to do more than talk a good talk.  (And I thank God I have a wife that does too.)