Living Intentionally

The past five summers I have worked in Storm Lake, Iowa for a Christian nonprofit named, the Bridge of Storm Lake.  This has been one of the best leadership, ministry, and growing opportunities of my life.  I have learned many things including how to best prepare for activities, being flexible when things are going to be different than planned, and learning from and about other cultures.  However, probably the biggest thing that I have learned is how to best love people, by intentionally living my life loving people.   

I really started to try to live intentionally when I decided to move into the trailer park a few summers ago.  This summer is my third summer living in the trailer park.  A lot of kids that the Bridge works with at the Bridge live in this trailer park, so it is definitely a chance to live amongst the people that I am serving.  I am getting to understand and relate to the kids and neighborhood on a deeper level.  However, that does mean that I need to actually be available when the kids come over.  I can’t just ignore them all the time when they want to do simple things like color or play outside.  This can also mean just being willing to sit there and talk to them, especially when they have a problem they are going through. This can be hard for me because there are many times I want to do the things that I want to do, and I don’t like doing something different than my plan.  I struggle sometimes to get outside of my head and live selflessly and therefore, intentionally. 

I have two examples of living intentionally since I have moved into the trailer park neighborhood this summer.   One time I had the plan to go to the store and then do a few more other things with work, but I had some puppies outside my door.  (I know, how great was that!) I, of course, played with them for a while and eventually their one owner, who is also my neighbor, wandered over looking for his puppies.  He is a seventh grade kid.  I spent some more time talking and getting to know him while playing with his puppies. The next day, one of the puppies was lost, and I tried to help him find the one.  We did end up finding her, so that was such a blessing.  He and his brother wanted to thank me by making me supper that night and bringing it over.   This was an example of doing my best to live intentionally.  I wanted to go to the store and get other things done, but God blessed me with an opportunity to get to know a kid, and later help that kid find his puppy, and therefore serve him.  It is showing kindness and love to those neighbors. 

There was another time where two girls came over because they were very bored.  This was, of course, still in the midst of social distancing, and they didn’t get the chance to play with people as much.  We spent an hour and a half coloring, and playing with slime.  They girls discovered how to use markers to change the color of the slime.  The girls got the chance to showcase their creativity and love of dancing.  This was also a great chance to talk and listen to music.  (Of course, these were K-pop groups.)  These were two girls that I had known in past summers, so they knew that they could come to my trailer and hopefully feel loved.    

I think that there are times we want our missionary life to be very flashy.  We may feel we need to go overseas and live in a different country to share God’s word and be a true doer of the faith.  This is not always true, or at least it isn’t always true for someone all the time.  God often blesses us with opportunities to serve the people around us in multiple ways.  There just needs to be a thought of living intentionally.  Every person has people in their life that they can show love to.  For example, everyone has been blessed with some forms of family members.  We have also been born into a community and neighborhoods that include a whole bunch of different people.  Then we also choose our own friends that we have the opportunity to show a lot of care and love to.  

All of this work would be considered very Christlike and Godly.  In Zechariah 4:10 it says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.”  I recently found this verse, and I believe that it shows living intentionally, even in the old testament of the Bible.  There was the idea of living intentionally even way back in the beginning of the Bible.  This verse showcases that small beginnings are important.  The Lord loves to see people start their own personal ministry and good work.  He wants to see us get started as opposed to doing nothing.  Even when it feels as though your ministry doesn’t matter, even when it feels as though you are not doing enough, it is important to remember that God has a love for whatever work you are doing.  God sees the encouraging note that you write to a coworker, the helping out of a neighbor, and the praying for the sick.  God has a plan for these pieces of work.  God may even use these little ways to live intentionally to grow, shape, and develop you to be ready for a bigger mission.