"But I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus - to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."
As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, the verse Acts 20:24 is important to me. It's one that I have considered my "life verse" for many years now. I just took some time to go back through Acts 20 for a sermon report I have to present on Monday for my preaching class, and - like scripture always causes me to do - I made some new realizations on an "old" text.
Acts 20 is Paul saying goodbye.
Goodbye to those he loves in order to say hello to the unknown.
He feels "compelled by the Spirit" to leave his ministry in Ephesus and return to Jerusalem to continue the ministry he received from Christ.
This point jumped out at me because I've been thinking about time a lot recently. I love every minute of being in Student Ministry at Mountain Christian Church. I love these people, I love this church, I love this place. I realized today that in all the chaos of planning, teaching, meetings, events, and good ministry, I've somehow come to the middle of my semester here.
Where did the time go?
Thankfully, it is just the middle of my semester and unlike Paul, I'm not saying my goodbyes yet. :)
But it's not going to be fun when I have to.
I know that when December comes, I will be returning to a slew of wonderful ministry opportunities at my new church plant back home and campus ministry at school. But saying goodbye to these wonderful people and this wonderful place called Mountain is going to be painful.
Like Paul did when he ministered with the Ephesians for 3 years, may I continue my ministry here in Maryland and hopefully, leave (myself) a changed person because of them, and leave a lasting impression on them and this place
Because God won't let me stay at Mountain forever.
Crying...
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