I have had the worst head cold ever these last few days! I hate it because it is stealing my time and efficiency! There is just sooooo much to do at work and at home!

Sydney too, has been dealing with the same thing. The funny thing is, her and I are both in an intense season of ministry right now. I am racing the clock, trying to get invitations out to our Spring Brunch fundraiser for Lifelight and Syd is part of "GO Love," spending every day out on the streets of Steinbach ministering to people around her. This is the mission trip our youth was on this week.

Both of us are kinda doing the same thing. And both of us have experienced much frustration!...and this stupid head cold!

Hmm.... I wonder if we are both under attack?

I continue to be completely dumbfounded at how difficult it is for us to figure out ways to minister and be effective in reaching out to people in our comfort zone. Sydney came home one day from her mission day (they spent every night at home, then returned to the church every day at noon and went out from there.) and said "Mom, this is so hard. We should have put some more Jesus into it today."

I knew exactly what she meant!

While we were out in Mexico, it was so easy to give out a Bible, extend kindness and tell people about our amazing God. Especially in a village deep in the jungle. You can see clearly that you are "set apart" and that you are offering them the same gift that has the power to set them apart.

So why is it so difficult to be "set apart" in our "bible-belt" city on the prairies? We are so woven together in a melting pot of diversity, that you cannot differentiate a Christian form a non-Christian when you are walking down the street. Sydney felt like they really had to scratch their heads to figure out how they could minister and offer the love and peace of knowing Jesus Christ in every-day situations.

I completely understand this because we have our media-driven ideas of what it looks like to minister to the world around us. We minister according to what makes us feel good about ourselves. For example, we feel so good at Christmas time when we have given toys, food or clothing to those in need. No doubt, these are awesome things! In fact, Christ calls us to these acts of caring for others.

But there is one life altering component we forget. It isn't complete without presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many well meaning individuals and organizations who stop at the immediate felt need. Jesus continued to preach the gospel even though all felt needs were not met. He went back to heaven, leaving an entire world of felt needs!

If the immediate felt needs were more important than knowing the truth of God's love and forgiveness, and that He came to free us from lives of bondage and sin, He would not have had to send the Holy Spirit to help us, or bothered to grace us with the Written Word.

Jesus knew that our felt needs are temporary. This life will only last for a little while. And what's more, He understood these felt needs because as God in a man's body, he felt hunger, coldness, limited clothing, and only his sandals for transportation.

The Bible is our toolbox. Without it, we cannot experience the joy and peace that comes from knowing that there is a much bigger plan for us, both here in the temporal life and for eternity.

Eternity.....forever.

Forever is a very long time.