Leave Your Map Behind...

In Sarah Young's Devotionals, "Jesus Calling", she writes of our need to constantly see the map of our lives and to know just where it is we're heading.  But, she goes on to say, that Jesus is the best map we could have.  

What would happen if we left the map behind and followed The Guide instead?  

Genesis, I believe, is doing just that...leaving the map behind.  I was blown away today when Sharon reminded us that they are coming up on 10 years of the Genesis ministry start, right there at the Care Center.  What an amazing amount of community outreach and growth that has occurred in just 10 short years!

We were also reminded today of the story about how Genesis got started in the first place.  Pastor Trevor was so distraught after he found a man who had died, alone, on the church grounds.  He was so broken by this that he asked this question at church the following Sunday..."If the church were gone tomorrow, would anybody know?"  

The thing is, the church can pour their resources into building their own church and their own programs...without any direct contact with or impact on their community.  They can spend all of their time loving each other and building up other believers. They can lay out an ideal map of what "church" and "ministry" should look like within their own four walls.  But God calls us to walk with Him and BE the church.  BE the adventure. BE the journey.  "Church" should not be a noun, but a verb!

Genesis continues to leave the map behind.  The Care Center is now training other area pastors on how to handle grief within their community.  They are partnering with local churches to alert them when one of their community members is released from the hospital and is heading home, so that they can be looked in on and supported in the transition.  They have just started a training module for home visiting nurses (a real-life "Call the Midwife" scenario, if you will....so cool!), and they are working on ideas on how to make such a program sustainable into the future, because it's what their community needs!

It's so inspiring to see what focusing on Jesus can do, and where it can lead!  I want to be brave, put down my map, and follow Him!

Road trip, anyone?