STAYING IN YOUR LANE - Is one of the most valuable lessons we have learned over the last few years. For a while, in our sincere efforts to help others, we said YES to almost everybody and ventured into other lanes beyond our calling. We found ourselves involved in organizational conflict resolution, business on-boarding, and well-intentioned trainings that only triggered people who were not ready for deep inner healing. Then Chris got really sick and we have had to take a few steps back to recover from blows that came within battles that we were never meant to fight. Now we're resetting and getting back on track with the original call and commission that was given to us. That has meant prioritizing and pacing ourselves to run the race (marathon) that has been set before us. We don't mean any disrespect to anyone else, especially to those organizations and ministries that we worked with over the years. But we have to stay in our lane, and if our paths cross with those who feel they may need us, we now have the wisdom to weigh our options, assess our availability and ability, discern if it's a good thing to do versus a God thing to do, set boundaries, and do what we can, if we can. We know when to say 'no', 'not now', or 'let us think about it first'. We know for sure that our best way of helping is to stay in our lane and defer to others who might be able to serve them better.
We can no longer allow the visions and dreams of others to pull us away from the call and commission that it upon us. Our priority is to equip Believers in the region where God sent us, to do the work of ministry and service in their families and communities. God gave us one business, one school and one mission: The renovation of hearts and homes. In the words of the awesome poem by Helen Steiner Rice, we’re no longer trying to light up the whole world; we’re just going to brighten the corner where we have been placed. It's actually a beautiful thing.
Brighten the Corner Where You Are
~ Helen Steiner Rice ~
We cannot all be famous
Or be listed in “Who’s Who,”
But every person great or small
Has important work to do,
For seldom do we realize
The importance of small deeds
Or to what degree of greatness
Unnoticed kindness leads—
For it’s not the big celebrity
In a world of fame and praise,
But it’s doing unpretentiously
In undistinguished ways
The work that God assigned to us,
Unimportant as it seems,
That makes our task outstanding
And brings reality to dreams—
So do not sit and idly wish
For wider, new dimensions
Where you can put in practice
Your many “good intentions”—
But at the spot God placed you
Begin at once to do
Little things to brighten up
The lives surrounding you,
For if everybody brightened up
The spot on which they’re standing
By being more considerate
And a little less demanding,
This dark old world would very soon
Eclipse the “Evening Star”
If everybody brightened up
The corner where they are!
