The Way You Live Your Life Matters

Coming to the end of the first quarter of this year, I find myself reflecting on those words God spoke to me at the beginning. Next month it will be 19 years ago that this vision came flooding into my heart – a culmination of experiences and need – to start CoLaborers International. I remember sitting there at the gym that night where I was working writing everything down fast, trying to catch it as it came and then, looking at it saying, “God it’s too big. You’ve got the wrong person. I don’t even know how to get on this path”. God spoke to me in pictures. I saw a stepping stone in front of me surrounded by a misty fog and felt a nudging “can you just take the next step in front of you?” So I did. and I did. and I did for years. The stepping stones turned into a path. Proverbs 3:6 became my lived experience – acknowledge God in each way, and He will direct your path.  Friends came alongside, dreams became programs, and we became an organization.

 

If that Melissa from back then could wake up in my older body now – wow.  Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I will have a meeting at 6am with a Kenyan organization, EDARP, we have been working alongside with for years as they serve People Living with HIV. Then I’ll get my kiddos ready for school and go into a meeting with our staff Frank and Brittany in Costa Rica – 2 people who fell in love with God and then fell in love with each other when their path intersected through our organization and they now help immigrant children know the safe, patient, love of Christ, receive food in their bellies and educational help with some crafts along the way. Their own 2 kiddos often pop up in the background of our calls too – my little nieces. By afternoon it will be night for our Zambian staff and I’ll be on a group video call with them about the progress of our programs there after they’ve tucked their own littles into bed. Then my own kids will be home from school. 

 

The way you live your life matters. If you pray for someone when you say you will and over the decisions you make, and for the people in your life – God will give you guidance and the next step. Maybe not the whole path, not yet, but He will guide you. Consistent, every day commitment to use what you have inside of you and reach out to try to help the people you have access to becomes a beautiful lifestyle. 

 

So as you think of your younger self and older self you hope to become, I hope you can be unafraid of following God step by step over time. More later. 

 

Blessings, Melissa