Trucking for Jesus

I met this beautiful couple at a Holy Spirit Retreat this weekend. Leon and Lorraine, who, by profession, are truck drivers. I learned about the benefits of being a truck driver – especially when you have your spouse with you and she's a driver, too. Though the financial blessing is right at the top, for this couple who have traveled together for over 20 years, it is far beyond the financial rewards. They are on a mission to touch as many lives as they can as God's messengers of "Good News". I heard stories of men and women (some of which are “ladies of the night”) whose lives were turned around by their fearless witness of Christ.

I’m sure you’ve been at a church service where the youth group is going on a mission trip to a foreign country or a young person is going into a seminary or someone else is going into “full-time” ministry. They’ll get applauded for their “full-time” spiritual work. There’s a division between “full time” spiritual work and worldly “secular” work. One sounds like it’s serving Christ and the other sounds like we’re serving ourselves. Unfortunately, we’ve been led to believe that a secular job isn't sacred and it's just impossible to bring glory to God in the marketplace.

Au contraire! My new friends bring glory to God when they drive their truck filled with cargo. They make God famous when they bring the light of Christ wherever they go and oftentimes, that light is so bright that the lost are drawn to them. And, you know what? We, too, bring glory to God when we help a friend move from their home to an apartment; when we roll down the window of our car and give that one standing on the corner with a sign to give them the love of Jesus in words, food or money.

Each of us has been charged to bear fruit in a way that honors God. We do that when we are involved in loving our neighbor. If God has made you a farmer, a lawyer, a nurse, a teacher, then that is a sacred calling in itself. We don’t have to be the pastor to go into "full-time Christian work" just because we think that is what you have to do if you love and serve God.

As I matured in my walk with Christ, I came to realize that when I wake up each day, I AM His disciple, His messenger, and His ambassador and devoted follower as I ensure my words are kind, generous, loving, sincere and caring and my actions are those that do reflect God's love and mercy.

So if we aren't being nudged to go to Africa to serve in an orphanage, it doesn’t mean our reach is any less. It’s not any less spiritual. It’s not any less filled with potential and purpose.

We serve a God who is not boxed in by time, circumstances, or geography. He is everywhere, all the time, with everyone. Every day we have the opportunity to touch someone's heart who will touch their family's hearts who will touch their communities and who will touch the world. All God is asking of us is our willing heart to be His hands extended to a hurting world that needs our words of encouragement and our hands of tender loving care.

We are Christ’s ambassadors. If we don’t represent Him to the marketplace and world and give out the good news, who will?
Mark 16:15 " Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel (the Good News) to all creation."