by Brave Author Aubrey Taylor
“I have compassion on the crowd.” Matthew 15:32 ESV
This verse jumped out at me the other day. For many years, I had been very busy serving God in the church. My activities outside of Christian settings were minimal. Even my children were homeschooled.
Then, I was called out of my comfortable Christian cocoon. God picked me up and dropped me in a place full of people with all kinds of different backgrounds, opinions, lifestyles, habits… It challenged my ways of doing and being and thinking on so many levels. I began to realize that I could have amazing relationships with people outside of the church.
I’ll be honest: I also began reading secular literature, both fiction and memoirs. I realized that, as someone who was raised in the church, I really had no clue what life was like for many people. For most of my life, the easiest thing to do had been to avoid being around people who weren’t Christians. But was that belief keeping me from the very places I needed to be?
We are called to be the light of the world. Do we really stop to think about what it means to put our light under a bushel? It doesn’t only mean remaining silent when we’re around people who don’t believe as we do. Some–and perhaps many of us–hide our light by doing just what I did: avoiding the unbelieving world as much as possible.
We’re called to be in the world but not of it. Jesus struck a balance, and I have to believe that He desires to help us do the same. In fact, He says we will do greater works than He (John 14:12 ESV).
Finally, in my meditation, I found Ezekiel 34:4 convicting:
“The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back…”
I realize that the Lord is speaking here to the leaders of Israel who had not fulfilled their ministry, but have we likewise missed out on the greatest opportunities by refusing to go “where the people are”? There are hurting people all around us. Many will never set foot in a church. It is imperative that we seek God to find out where we can go in order to find them.
So I ask you today, what new place might God be leading you to? What brave step can you take to enter into a situation you never imagined God would want to use you in?
About the author
As a child, Aubrey spent countless hours creating characters and writing stories. This ended around age sixteen when music, school, friends and part-time jobs began to fill her time. After that came college, work, marriage, and children.
It wasn’t until the world was beginning to come out of the COVID pandemic that God led her back to her love for writing, coupled with a passion she’d always had for history. It was time to start a new adventure!
Along with writing devotionals, Aubrey is the author of the German-perspective 20th Century Fiction series, Gott Mit Uns. She lives in New York State with her husband and three children. When she’s not writing or taking care of her home and family, she enjoys singing and dancing with friends from a German choir and a Bavarian folk dancing group. She is also a lover of Jesus Christ, The Holy Bible, history, German culture, tea, and cats! You can learn more about her at her website: https://aubreytaylorbooks.com/.
