I feel like a fool

    I feel like such a fool.
    I have been writing a book.  I have been planning a ministry.  I have been working hard to shape it and make my professional plans.
     But yesterday, my friend was hurting.  She was really hurting in her heart.
     She stopped by for a few minutes and I sat with her, I spoke with her.  I found what I had done wrong.  I saw other things that she had done wrong, but could not yet hear.  She sat, defensive and mad and pained.
     I sat.
     I sat with her.
     I was WITH HER.
     I spoke words of understanding and love, but they were simple words.  Nothing flashy or genius.  I just let her know that I was, in my heart, right there WITH HER.
     That was all I did.  And yet it was the biggest, best ministry I can offer.
     Sitting with someone in their pain, and being a word of mercy, of tenderness, of compassion, IS TO BE CHRIST to them.  There is no ministry as powerful as BEING JESUS to someone.  That is the pinnacle of Christian ministry; it's the whole point.
     Speaking in a microphone or publishing a book is far, far down the totem pole, much more remote as a form of ministry.  People I do not know might hear words that impact them, and that can be good.  But teaching, as good as it is, not BEING CHRIST as such.  It is sharing Christ's truth, maybe. But that is not the same thing as seeing Jesus in the face of the person to whom you are ministering, and being Jesus yourself.
   
     I have this sort of ministry, of BEING WITH someone, in my homeschool: I am WITH my child as she learns, and I see where she is, and help her each day take one small step forward.  It is the step SHE needs.  Because it is designed just for her, it is being WITH her.
     I have this sort of ministry with my husband: he is certainly  AS CHRIST to me, and I try to be to him.  Being the person of Christ to my husband is my life's vocation, my life's ministry.
     Then I have friends and extended family members who, too, need Christ to be WITH THEM from time to time.  I love this ministry.
    So there you have it, my life's work.  My massive-impact, world-changing, incredibly popular, NewYork Times bestselling contribution: Love as BEING WITH someone in their moment of being small, finite, imperfect or hurt--one fabulous person at a time.