A Big Return on our Investment
It is Sunday morning. After a month-long Tour de Texas, it’s good to be back home again – “home” home, and to my church home. I hear: “You’re back!” “Welcome home, Donna!” “We missed you, Donna!” I love those words: “Welcome home!” Can we even fathom what those words meant to the prodigal son when His dad welcomed him home? I’m in MY pew and MY seat. Well, it’s not really mine, but I get here early enough to claim my territory! Second row, first seat, middle aisle where those of us who are honored and humbled to be communion servers stand. Easy to get to my place from here.
There is no place like home with my “church family”. We are the ones who team up in volunteering, serving, sharing, loving and praying. A common goal – to let our little lights shine here and out there. Wherever I go, God goes — so, actually, everywhere I go is home sweet home. But, I see Him loud and clear in my church family. We walk hand-in-hand in some tough times and in the over-the-top good times. We are family. We’re a part of the Family of God – we’re brothers and sisters.
As I kneel for a few minutes, I exhale all the busyness of my life and I inhale the One Who got this whole “church” thing started in the first place. He wanted us to come together in one accord. He wanted us to bear one another’s burdens. He wanted us to be Him to our world. I sense my Lord here. In this place and in my heart. I know Him intimately. He knows even more about me – even those annoying fly-away hairs that I have to keep licking my fingers to make them stay down. I express gratitude, with all this journeying I do, for getting me safe and sound back here.
I look around. I see Him in the etched glass reaching His arms out to His disciples. I get chills just thinking He’s holding His arms out to me in the same way. After all – I, too, am one of His disciples. He says: “Follow Me!” And, I follow. I see Him in the stained glass above the altar – the hand of God symbolizing the Father, the Lamb symbolizing the Son, the Dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. I’m familiar with the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I know them well – not as casual acquaintances but as MY never-failing, always-present, Holiest of Holy team.
Maybe you don’t have a church family – those who go toe-to-toe with you in good times and tough times; those who see you and come with a hearty hug for you. I have an investment in this place – my time, my talent and my treasure. The return on my investment is peace, joy, comfort, stability, hope, love and long-term (lifelong and beyond-term) pay-offs. Here’s my humble advice: If you want the best return on investment (ROI), there is nothing like investing in the Kingdom of God, investing in people. People will endure through time and eternity.
We don’t have a mission. God has a mission and has invited us to become part of His mission. We are the people to accomplish that mission. Someone said, “Keep the main thing the main thing.” The main thing is the mission of God. If you want real ROI, be a part of a team of people who make you better because their interests are beyond themselves. Their interests are Kingdom-based, people-based. Together we’re strong and stalwart with eyes on the prize. So, onward, Christian soldiers! Marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.