Showing Up

After preaching at Gateway this past Sunday, I went to the  Veterans Nursing Home at Fort Roots where a small group was gathered in the activity center. After the service, one of the elderly veterans said to me, "I wish we could have had more people here for your sermon."

I smiled and thanked the elder vet and replied, "We didn't have a large group, but we had a good one. We are the ones who showed up. I showed up, you showed up and the handful of others showed up. That's were 90% of what happens in life begin - in just showing up."

In most every church, it is that relatively small percentage of members who keep showing up to set up, clean up, fix up, cheer up - you name the task or the need and the same small group will be there. Others may drop in and help from time to time but you know the faces and the names of the ones who always show up. They are the ones that get kingdom work done consistently, time after time.

This isn't something new, it's been the case from the start.  Jesus commented on this truth as he observed those who showed up: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Lk 10:2).

It's always been that way; perhaps it always will. But you don't have to be one of the frequently or always missing in action. You can choose to be one the the few that consistently shows up and makes a difference in your community and advances the work of the kingdom.  Jus' Say'n.