“If you want to build a ship, don’t command men to gather wood, don’t divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint Exupery

I love this quote! It has easy application to the Biblical command to go and teach.

If you want to build God’s Kingdom, inspire people to yearn for their King.

It’s said by many statisticians that Christ followers have been trained with at least five methods for sharing our faith, and yet, we live in a post-Christian world. Have we relied on training rather than yearning? To yearn means to have an intense feeling of longing for or to be filled with compassion or warm feeling for something.

We love to see our friends and families at church! We catch up on the latest. We schedule coffee dates. We feel good about being in church. But when was the last time we yearned for church so that we could worship freely in Spirit and in truth? (John 4:24) What lyrics recently broke down our walls and left us feeling like a raw, open wound before Jesus? Do we prepare ourselves during the week to hear from God through the spoken word? Are we praying with perseverance for the people who will be sitting with us in the worship center? Do we have compassion and warm feelings for being the church?

It’s frustrating for me as an employee of a church that occasionally, in those times scheduled for worship, well, I’m just on the clock. When those times happen, it’s easy to know that there wasn’t enough preparation in my own heart during the week. There wasn’t enough time spent yearning Jesus. Not enough time spent with Jesus in His word. Not enough time listening to Gods direction. Ignoring the Spirit’s nudgings when out and about with people. Closing my eyes to the needs all around me that require me to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Too much time spent just doing my daily thing.

The words to a song come to mind as I think of what it means to yearn…”Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his wonderful face; And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.”

Father, we want to yearn for You, but it’s hard. There’s so much life to conflict with this yearning. We want to be the person that people see Jesus in. We truly desire to make a difference in our world by serving You. Show us how.

Amen

-by Mari Parker