Who Is Missing?

My heart is overflowing today with thankfulness towards God. I am thankful for His life and the example that He left when He sent Jesus. I am thankful for His grace which has saved me from a life removed from God. I am thankful that I have Good News to share with other people!

I wasn't feeling too well this morning and decided to curl up and read a bit - I guess it is one of those luxuries that I have because I do my work from home. I have been reading a book that I gave Michael for his birthday. Well, his birthday was over a month ago and since then his father and I have read it and the birthday boy hasn't even had a chance to touch it!


If you guessed that this book we've been passing around is a good one you guessed right. We heard the author at the book at a conference we went to (Urbana '06). Both of us were immediately impressed by what he said.

The book is all about do-able evangelism. I love the main theme of this book because it's not about a 5 point conversation that you have with a person but it's all about showing people that you care about them. It's all about being real, ordinary with the people that you come in contact with in your everyday life. Each chapter in the book has motivated me to be more intentional about how I act in everyday life - looking at people in the eye, opening doors, asking people how they are doing and listening while they speak. I love it!

In reading the book I began to think about prayer and how prayer plays such a big part in all of this. Prayer is such a humbling experience and makes me realize that God is supreme and that He is the one that orchestrates everything. It's like, "Hey God, it's me, down here. I am thankful that you are in charge and know what's best. " It seems to me that prayer really puts things back into perspective and helps us to realize that after all, it really is the Lord who "determines our steps" even though we make plenty of plans (Proverbs 16:9).

Oh, if you would like to know more about this book we've been reading it is called: AKA Lost: Discovering Ways to Connect with the People Jesus Misses Most by Jim Henderson. I love the whole premise of the book. Henderson believes that people that don't know Jesus aren't "lost" they are just "missing". When you lose something you look around for it for a while and then give up because you realize you can't find it. However, when you are missing something you actively look for it and want to find it. God is actively seeking those people that are missing and wants to find them!

I pray that God will continue to bring "missing" people into my life.