Sunday, June 17, 2012

Looking for the Harvest....Now Where's My Binoculars?

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     I had a certain thought the other day. Lately I have been reminded over and over how we are the light of the world as Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:14.

      I've stocked shelves at my job so many times I can do it without thinking about it.So, a lot of times I kinda forget where I am and accidentally loose myself in the world of my own thoughts.

     That's where I was a few weeks ago, absentmindedly putting ace bandages and cough syrup on the shelf, my mind lost to the world around me: the people walking past, talking it up on their cell phones as they shop at their favorite pharmacy. My coworker a few isles down stocking the pet supplies. But, I don't realize things are going on. I'm in another world. And the bad part about it is I find myself here an awful lot.

     Where I should be is a totally different world for me. Kansas City is another world, another culture. I don't fit in around here. I look different, I talk different, (I say, "Thirty cents is your change," not "thirty cent."), and I act different. I'm not into rap music or shiny, chrome rims on my car. I think I have culture shock every summer when I come home from college for the summer. But, this is where I am. This is where I need to be. This is where the darkness is. I'm not by any means saying that I'm any better than anyone, its just not my culture. So, why am I here?

     Here was my thought. Jesus taught that we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. When I think of the harvest as Jesus spoke of it, I often find myself picturing a mission field far, far away. I get out my "spiritual binoculars" and try to focus on that field that is hundreds of miles away and could be years in the future. It's white and its ready, but there's one problem: I'm not there yet.

     But these past few weeks have really changed the way I think of this. I've had so many opportunities to be a witness for my Savior, and it seems like I did not even have to go looking for them. In fact, they came to me! They knocked me out of my dream world and into the present. It's always like that; many times you have to approach people, but this time I was in the right place, at the right time, doing my job, being where I was. I have learned that if I am always "living in the future" and constantly thinking about it, I forget that the harvest is right where I am. They are my coworkers, they are my customers. They are all around me. I am in the harvest field.

      So, today is where I am. Yes, there are times when we need to look and plan for the future. By all means, plan for the future! But today the world looks at me, they look at you, and they see that you are different. Will you choose to lay down your binoculars and get to work in the field in which you're standing?

It's ready...they're ready.

   
"Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." Luke 10:2

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