Some of my regular readers may be wondering, “What does a post like the one two weeks ago on one type of modern day slavery have to do with the usual topic of spending time with Jesus daily?”

I would have to answer it has everything to do with your daily walk with Jesus. You become who you spend the most time with. When I spend time with my friends like Natalie, Shea, and Onawa, I’m encouraged to see God as someone who is very real. To these friends, God is as present in their lives as their physical family, even more so at times, and by spending time with them, I begin to see Him in that way, too.

I also have prayer warrior friends like Jean, Julie, and Crystal. To them God isn’t just someone you send up prayers of thanks to or who you pray to at meals times and bed. He is eagerly awaiting our prayers and desires to answer them in powerful, tangible ways. When I spend time with them and friends like them, I begin to pray with expectation that God will answer.

In the same way, when we hang out with Jesus each day, his ways rub off on us. We’re no longer okay with church building Christianity. We begin to walk with Him throughout our day and invite him into every aspect of our lives. Over time, he becomes not just someone we know about, but our friend who we have a real relationship with.

As that relationship grows, we begin to want to help others, not because the preacher said it was a good thing to do, but out of thankfulness for what Jesus did for us. This can be helping those in your church, reaching out to your community through clothing drives, and outreach projects. It can mean sending money to help an organization. It can mean helping out those trapped in Human Trafficking in some of the ways I wrote about two weeks ago.

The cool thing is we aren’t all called to serve in the same ways. Just as 1 Corinthians 12 says, we all are different parts of one body. We are all called to do different acts of service and to touch different people’s lives. I saw this idea clearly when I was visiting with a friend a few months ago. We were talking about how we felt lead to help others. She was describing how important foster care is to her, and how at some point she would like to be a foster parent. As I listened to her, I was beginning to feel like, well maybe I should think about foster care, even though I have no desire to be a career mom. Then she said how when she thinks about some poor little boy her son’s age, abused, cold, and alone, she knows she just has to help. It occurred to me I get the same type of picture in my mind when I think of some poor girl alone and abused in a hotel room or apartment just miles from me. I can’t leave her there and do nothing. I can’t walk away.

Maybe foster care or helping human trafficking victims isn’t where your gifts lay or where you’re called to help. That’s okay. But as another friend pointed out in a blog post several months ago, in the grand scheme of things, we are small. Don’t let indecision or a lack of feeling “called” lead you to do nothing. Jump into one of the many opportunities surrounding you in your church and community.

As you fill up on Jesus each day, allow him to change you. As you’re heart is broken for those his heart breaks for, look for ways to reach out to others and allow them to see Jesus in you.