in or out?

I love being an observer, watching people interact with those around them, thinking about the possibility of their stories. This past Sunday at church, this beautiful couple, probably in their early thirties, was in front of me. The woman was holding their 6-8 week old baby. I was in awe watching her cuddle him, feed him a bottle, comfort him as he began his quiet cry. Such a beautiful thing. Next to her were 3 high school boys. I loved watching these boys give Jose their undivided attention, excitedly taking notes. After a while I assumed that these high school boys were being mentored by the dad of the precious baby I wanted to steal.

I thought to myself about not missing a moment of life. Sometimes I think we can get into the mindset that what WE have going on is too much and we need to get rid of all of the outward things we are doing. Sometimes this can be true and we need to set boundaries for our marriage, or family or personal situation going on. But as we seek the Lord and are continued to be filled up from Him we really should never feel stressed or tired or overwhelmed too much to not be able to deal with our situation. YES if we are not seeking Him there is no way we can do most of the things in our life without Him. I just loved assuming the fact that this new mom and dad couple were not focused so much on this new joy in their life that they were able to drive high school boys to church with them. This new dad was making the most of every opportunity he had to show others the sacrificial love of Christ.

One of the boys raised his hand at the end of the service when Jose asked for those who felt moved by the Spirit during this service to commit their lives to Christ. This boy then went the prayer room and closely following him was this new dad. What a life changing day. What if that new parent couple had been too tired to invite those boys to church or too caught up in their own lives to even go that morning. A new life in Christ would have been postponed for another time. This high school boy got to begin his journey with Christ living inside his heart THAT day.

What kind of life would we live if it was always looking in at what we need and never out to what others needed. There are so many needs in this world that with Christ's strength in us we can meet. Are you looking in or are you looking out?