As our thoughts begin to turn toward Thanksgiving, I'm reminded of the long-ago November I attended a conference in San Antonio. I'd come home with the music of the guest singer and was playing it while setting the Thanksgiving table. The lyrics of the song spoke of looking up from your table and seeing the fields that were ready for harvest.
I took the timely words to heart, and looked up to consider the "fields'" that were just across from my neighborhood. One was the university and the other was the Veterans Hospital. Within a few days I was in the office of the Chaplain at the V.A. asking if I could visit patients. At first he declined my offer, but eventually introduced me to one young man that was paraplegic, who wanted to know more about God.
It was awkward and uncomfortable for both of us at first, but after several visits we began bonding - and he asked me to pray with him. From that day forward things began to change. Over the next few months he was reconnected to extended family that had ignored him, and reconciled to his father that had rejected him. Eventually he returned to his home state to be near his family, in assisted living, with plans to become a champion for wheelchair access rights.
So what did I learn? I learned that even I was called and qualified to be a laborer for the Lord. That I had to be willing to go into the field; and that in this case, the field was just across the street. A shift in my thinking, a few willing steps ~ He did the rest.
P.S. I think it was a set up (:
John 4:35 I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
