Like Abram, God calls each of us to unique and specific tasks. These tasks could be as every day as a conversation with a person who is hurting and needs a listening ear and a word of encouragement, and these tasks could be the way we earn a living or whom we choose to build a family with or the places we serve others.

Fear freezes our dreams, hopes, and aspirations. It immobilizes our efforts. Even though a pastor, I still feared someone might reject me if I shared my faith.

Jesus instructs his disciples that, if the people do not accept them, shake the dust off their feet. This action becomes a sacramental act to remove failure from our lives.

Jesus instructed his disciples to not take anything with them as they went on their mission. Why?

Slowly it dawned on me that one reason Jesus sent his disciples into the world was to use us to find and be in ministry with the forgotten, the weak, the least, the last, and the lost.

In my early years of ministry, I thought I had to do things myself because I was the one paid to do ministry. Eventually, I learned that I accomplished so much more when working with others.

Jesus says that “…The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…” (Luke 10:2)