One day, when I was on my way to the office, an elderly gentleman asked me to help him get off at the bus stop. He was blind. Holding his arm, he thanked me a lot, speaking words of blessing to me. Then he asked me, “my son, do you know Jesus?”
I got a fright! Well, I was there to witness for Him to people through my behavior and words! But there I was, holding an elderly man’s arm, being asked if I knew Jesus.
We have the fabulous remit to love the world and to do this well we need to be balanced emotionally, physically and spiritually. If we are not, we don’t have much to give (and we tend to end up thinking mainly about ourselves!).
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This well-used quotation has guided many cross-cultural workers seeking to help underserved communities. Unfortunately, in today’s world, it is often not that simple and we are having to ask new questions such as “Why is the lake drying up?”, “Why have the fish not come this year?”, “Why do people get sick when they eat the fish?”, and “Why do the fish have plastic in their stomachs?”
When I was first asked to write something related to “caring for spiritual health in ministry”, my initial response was, “Are you sure? That’s a topic I’m barely starting to come to terms with myself.”
