Tunnel Vision
One time I was working from home in my office, on a summer day. The kids were out of school. I was preparing for something for the CR ministry and my daughter decided to come in and interrupt me. Now, you must know that there are rules when I work from home and one of those is that dad cannot be bugged when he is working from home. My daughter was pretty young at the time and she opened my office door and said "daddy!"
My first reaction was to snap at her and tell her that she knew the rules on coming into my office while dad was working. She went back to her room. I alter realized that she was trying to show me a cute little picture she drew for me. Ouch! I know, terrible dad huh?!
Sometimes in my life I can develop tunnel vision and not even see what is right in front of me.
You see, in my mind I had "ministry" on my mind and didn’t stop to realize that ministry was happening right in front of my eyes with my own daughter. I had to make amends to my sweet little girl at the time for snapping at her.
This was a good reminder the Lord gave me to understand that I must stay out of my tunnel vision mode. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up with doing work that we lose sight of the great opportunities He places right before our eyes. I bet if you stopped and thought about it you might realize some people God put in your path like he has mine, that I have missed and opportunity to minister to even today.
I remember when we were talking about who we would invite to the 8 Year anniversary for our CR here locally, we asked our folks to take a little business card invitation to hand out to someone. After attempting to give one lady a few cards to hand out, she responded to me saying, "Sorry, I don't know anyone I could invite. I don't have any friends."
Interesting how we can fall into that frame of mind when we think about who can use this ministry huh?
I mean, stop and think about who you came across today in your everyday life. You interacted with people at the coffee shop when you got coffee this morning, maybe someone at the school when dropping off your kids. Maybe over breakfast at the local restaurant a waitress or hostess that seated you. Maybe someone at the quick stop you got gas from? What about the grocery store clerk when you stopped to pick up some milk? A co-worker? Or even, someone you sat next to in church or community group? The point is, if we really stop and think about it, so many people God puts in our life could use the tool of CR and we might have missed the opportunity to tell the them about it.
"but, they don't look like they need recovery" Yes, but neither did we. We are good at wearing masks and some people look like they have it all together but are in fact screaming and even drowning in their own life.
It could be by us sharing about the hope in Christ and CR as a tool to deal with life's hurts, habits and hang-ups could even save their marriage, job, or even life.
“Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes! He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Cor 1:3-4
God is painting a new picture in you and a part of staying on track is carrying out His message to others. If we are not careful, we will have our blinders on and miss the ministry happening right in front of us. We may miss the opportunity to share His good news. The next time you are around someone, keep your eyes open and remember principle 8: Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.
But….remember, it has to start with our own family. This is our first and most important ministry to focus on. Imagine the impact you can have on people if you take advantage of the opportunities placed right in front of you.
For information about Celebrate Recovery, contact Rodney at 479-659-3679 or roholmstrom@fellowshipnwa.org
My first reaction was to snap at her and tell her that she knew the rules on coming into my office while dad was working. She went back to her room. I alter realized that she was trying to show me a cute little picture she drew for me. Ouch! I know, terrible dad huh?!
Sometimes in my life I can develop tunnel vision and not even see what is right in front of me.
You see, in my mind I had "ministry" on my mind and didn’t stop to realize that ministry was happening right in front of my eyes with my own daughter. I had to make amends to my sweet little girl at the time for snapping at her.
This was a good reminder the Lord gave me to understand that I must stay out of my tunnel vision mode. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up with doing work that we lose sight of the great opportunities He places right before our eyes. I bet if you stopped and thought about it you might realize some people God put in your path like he has mine, that I have missed and opportunity to minister to even today.
I remember when we were talking about who we would invite to the 8 Year anniversary for our CR here locally, we asked our folks to take a little business card invitation to hand out to someone. After attempting to give one lady a few cards to hand out, she responded to me saying, "Sorry, I don't know anyone I could invite. I don't have any friends."
Interesting how we can fall into that frame of mind when we think about who can use this ministry huh?
I mean, stop and think about who you came across today in your everyday life. You interacted with people at the coffee shop when you got coffee this morning, maybe someone at the school when dropping off your kids. Maybe over breakfast at the local restaurant a waitress or hostess that seated you. Maybe someone at the quick stop you got gas from? What about the grocery store clerk when you stopped to pick up some milk? A co-worker? Or even, someone you sat next to in church or community group? The point is, if we really stop and think about it, so many people God puts in our life could use the tool of CR and we might have missed the opportunity to tell the them about it.
"but, they don't look like they need recovery" Yes, but neither did we. We are good at wearing masks and some people look like they have it all together but are in fact screaming and even drowning in their own life.
It could be by us sharing about the hope in Christ and CR as a tool to deal with life's hurts, habits and hang-ups could even save their marriage, job, or even life.“Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes! He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Cor 1:3-4
God is painting a new picture in you and a part of staying on track is carrying out His message to others. If we are not careful, we will have our blinders on and miss the ministry happening right in front of us. We may miss the opportunity to share His good news. The next time you are around someone, keep your eyes open and remember principle 8: Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.
But….remember, it has to start with our own family. This is our first and most important ministry to focus on. Imagine the impact you can have on people if you take advantage of the opportunities placed right in front of you.
For information about Celebrate Recovery, contact Rodney at 479-659-3679 or roholmstrom@fellowshipnwa.org
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