Mother Teresa Wisdom & The Great Commission

The picture frame is nearly as old as the card it contains. Both date to my first job at a large, family-owned gift store. It was here I learned to wrap gifts in a minute flat with three one-inch pieces of tape. I also mastered the hand-crank that turned ribbon to bows. Priced Northwoods and Hallmark and Precious Moments. Dusted and beautified displays.

Favorite Mother Teresa Quote

It was during one of many moments reading and reorganizing cards when one caught my eye. Cupped hands filled the cover, and golden words lay in a spiral: “I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, there is no hurt, only more love” (Mother Theresa). I returned the card to its spot but later bought it.

Back when I tucked that card into my purse and the line into my heart, I thought loving big meant traveling far. At seventeen, I’d already spent several summers overseas. That’s what I envisioned for the rest of my life—overseas missions. I wanted to follow Mother Teresa’s footsteps to India.

The dream was so real it became my identity—until God reminded me that He comes first, even over God-sized aspirations. Maybe you’ve been there, sure you heard God right, but then it seems He changed His mind. You wonder if it’s you or Him who missed it.

God reminded me that He comes first, even over God-sized aspirations (Twyla Franz quote).

A Both/And Mission

Here’s what I’m still learning daily: God can’t be contained by the human mind. He’s not limited to timelines or our idea of what comes next. He chooses where to plant us, for how long, and why. Look behind you. There’s evidence of the way He’s been kindly guiding, gently teaching you His heart and nature, growing trust as you lean into surrender.

God-planted longings have God-written endings. I trust this because it’s the story I’m living. To clarify, my story is still unfolding, as is yours, but I see now how a life-long dream to go led me to exactly where I’m standing. I’m trusting God with everything that comes next while rooting deep right where I am. And although living in suburban America is far from what I envisioned, the Great Commission is an everywhere, every moment mission. Maybe I would have missed that if I’d followed my own plan.

Missional living is a way of life that includes both the near and far places. It’s a both/and, not an either/or. That’s how Jesus meant it when He said “wherever you go, make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, TPT).

We’ve said faith is personal, and by that we mean private. But maybe that’s why it feels dried up and irrelevant. We stuff it into our pockets and peek at it when no one’s looking, but all around us, there are people hurting and feeling alone. It’s them, and it’s also us.

The things that slice right through what’s comfortable and normal in your life can leave you stranded–or banded together, sharing battered hope and gritty faith. We either isolate, or we get vulnerable. Keep our faith private or open up about the raw.

In the right-now of our pain, we can’t see beyond ourselves. But God can, and His plan to heal, restore, redeem is much, much larger than our individual story. The wildly good news is God gives us far more than we can hold in our two hands because that’s always been His plan.

Overflow. Overflow.Overflow. From everywhere we find ourselves.

How Can I Encourage You?

The other day I pulled out the stack of handwritten verses, homemade art, and pictures, maps, and flags that once filled my walls floor to ceiling and trained my heart to pray for the nations. Nestled amongst them was a second card with that Mother Teresa quote. I’d forgotten that I bought a second card in case I ever lost or ruined the one.

The quote hit me fresh because lately everything feels raw. God’s in it, and I’m grateful, but I need the reminder that there is beauty on the other side. That caring and hoping and offering your one surrendered life—because that’s all any of us have got—is worth it. Even when we can’t see the end.

What about you? Will you trust that God can use all your hopes and heartaches, all the delays and denials, to spill His love far beyond you? Can you be all in wherever He has you right at the very moment? Even when it hurts? Especially when it hurts?

Will you trust that God can use all your hopes and heartaches, all the delays and denials, to spill His love far beyond you? (Twyla Franz quote)

If your answer is yes, I’d love to be a friend on your corner, cheering you on.

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It’s the greatest privilege to encourage and equip you to love God and the people right in front of you so big it expands your heart. Because, as Mother Teresa says, it will hurt, but then there will only be giant love.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, give us eyes to see how You can ripple through our lives and reach the people around us. May we choose to live with wide open hearts right where we are. Amen.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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Missional Neighboring 101

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