A Little Bit of Hardship...YES PLEASE!

How could I ever have thought the New Testamant book of Acts was boring?

It's full of the daring adventures....life-changing moments.....dramatic God-encounters....courtroom debates...near-death experiences and exciting Holy Spirit encounters of the first Christian missionaries and the people they spent time with.

As I have been reading Acts, I have also been ankle-deep in rain puddles as I deliver the local paper to a side of town where mozzies reign supreme, dogs are NOT 'man's best friend' and the weather can't decide if it wants to be scorching, sunshiney hot or bucketing rain!

How incredibly timely that I would be journeying with the great Paul through Acts at the same time that I am folding and delivering 550+ papers. Timely, because I am actually making those deliveries to make a bit of money to give to missions. And Paul was the father of missions!

And my thought this week was to give up and tell my boss...'No more! This is NOT for me. It's too hot...too hard...too inconvenient...too ...... !!!!!!!!!' 

But then, as I read Acts this morning at 6.20am and hit the soggy footpaths at 7, I realised that a tiny bit of hardship in my life is a must. 

I need to keep this little job. Here's why: I have become too comfortable and too soft. I like my life to be convenient, easy and cool. But the whole point of making the deliveries is to receive a paycheck that will help support people working with other people where life is NOT so convenient, comfortable and easy.

Surely, I can endure the smallest amount of challenge in order to better empathise with others less fortunate than me and have a little bit of $$ to give and hopefully both ease their burden and share the love of Jesus.

Unlike Paul, I will NOT be beaten, shipwrecked or imprisoned for the pleasure of serving Jesus and others. Unlike thousands of Christian missionaries, I will NOT have to leave family and friends, learn another language and go without electricity and McDonalds. Unlike millions of people in the world today, I will NOT risk losing my life to natural disasters, a strict government regime, famine, war, preventable diseases or the long list of other life-threatening challenges people in developing countries face every day.

So yes please! Give me a little bit of paper-delivery-hardship.

(PS. If you are a Gladstone local reading this and you'd like to join me in this 'adventure' please be in touch. I am willing to share the journey:))