Finally, I have started again. Five Minute Friday is a time for women all
around the world to gather together and write.
Five minutes. No editing. Just writing.
Because it’s my first time back in over a year, I was a little rusty and
spent 10 minutes, but don’t tell J. Check out Five Minute Friday to join us. It’s quite fun. So, here goes.
Five Minute Friday: BREAK
As we got in the fancy car and started driving, it felt
wrong. We followed a guy who knew our
names and we got in a car with him. A
fancy car that was nicer than anything I had ever been in. There was water, snacks, and even champagne. Our drive was only 15 minutes, but there were
refreshments.
As I sat in the fancy car next to my brand new husband, I
was in awe. We had just had the most
magical day. A day to celebrate our love. And we were heading to what we still, to this
day, call “heaven” and it felt wrong.
As we passed “our people” on the road, going towards “heaven”
it felt wrong.
The people who we most
relate to.
The people to who our hearts
are stirred towards.
The people we work
with everyday.
We don’t take vacations,
we take trips. We go to the “least of
these”. We don’t go to the land of
excess. We vacation to slums. To love and serve people who are cast down
and ignored. We cross seas. We walk down the street in our town.
It’s hard.
And heart breaking.
And
exhausting.
But we keep on.
But you know what… We needed a break. We needed a chance to reflect upon what the
Lord has done in our lives. We needed a
chance to enjoy each other.
To celebrate
an eternal covenant made between us and the Lord.
To allow ourselves to dream big dreams.
Have big thoughts.
To imagine the future.
One of the hardest parts of ministry is allowing myself to
take a break. It’s hard to remember that
scripture tells us to take a break, and encourages us to rest and renew
ourselves. It’s hard to remember that even Jesus retreated. That God created, then took a Sabbath. That God calls us all to be a Mary sometimes
and not just a Martha.
Although it’s difficult to do and even harder to accept the
need…
We needed a break. And
I’m about ready for another.
Stop.
So nice to meet you. I'm a fellow missionary and wrote about this very same thing. God bless you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts. I believe it is important to take a break from our ministry to be refreshed and able to minister even better.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like time away is a bit selfish - for me not for others... You know like I need to be always working, and yet sometimes the time away is just what we need to be able to be more productive and refueled for service.
I hope you get another break soon!! Praying in the mean time God gives you the strength you need to keep working.
Stopping over from FMF