Praying for a Warrior

Two hours and 36 minutes to write a blog post for Day 15 of the series. I ain't gonna lie...I'm tired. I've had my jammies on since I walked in the door at 4:00pm today. It's been a long stretch of busy lately and while there is an end in sight, it's still eight days away.

I tucked my boys into bed after spending some good snuggle time with them tonight and considered accepting defeat on the whole 31 Days in a row thing and hopping into bed myself when the verse, "Do not grow weary in doing good" floated across my heart.

Chagrined, I picked up my computer and headed for the couch, thinking I would shake off the fog with a quick troll through Facebook. The first post I saw was written by a friend who had a malignant mass removed from her kidney today. Now, I have to tell you, this is no ordinary woman. She is no stranger to serious illness and the mass, thank God, is on her old kidney. She had a transplant a few years back. But anyway, upon learning that she was headed back to the hospital, she joked that while she would have preferred a tropical beach for a mission field, it is her privilege to go back and minister to those doctors and nurses she will be seeing. She, the patient, finds it her privilege to minister to others.

"Do not grow weary in doing good."

Her post was one asking for us to petition God to carry her pain for her and for her to be able to minister to this nurse, that she would come to know Jesus as Savior.

With her words, my little wall of self-pity crumbled with the force of Jericho. It also solidified my commitment to this series, with a bold caveat.  I have tried to make this very user friendly...let's just love on people because it's nicer that way.

And it is, definitely.

I feel like in the process of keeping it light, which admittedly, I don't do well, I've tried hard to keep Jesus out of it. Some of you might be laughing and thinking, really, because He's kind of all over the place.

Here's the thing, though: when I try to keep Jesus out of the mix things get stale. I get burned out. The message lacks fervor. The same thing happens when I go about the business He's set before me. I. Get. Weary.

My mission field may not be Froedtert, but the things I do, I do with the hope that the people I minister to will come to know Christ as Savior.

So my friends, do not grow weary in doing good. Serve strong with the strength that God provides, and don't try to accomplish anything on your own. Bring the One that you are actually serving with you. And if you think of it, send up a prayer for my warrior friend Wydia. She's doing battle tonight.