Have you been burdened to do something big for God? Maybe you have a desire for ministry that is burning inside you. In this day and age, the opportunities are endless. Missions, human trafficking, homeless shelters, women’s or men’s ministries, Celebrate Recovery, pregnancy centers, prisons…the possibilities are exciting and dizzying. Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” We all long to matter. We all want to make an impact and somehow know that our lives will leave an eternal mark for future generations.

I have to say, though, many of us try to skip past the preparation time and instead run towards the ‘doing’. The problem with this is that we can never effectively help anyone else until we’ve worked through our own ‘mess’. You can’t give what you don’t have.

Think of it this way: flight attendants always tell you to put on your own oxygen mask before helping someone next to you. When I was younger and flew on a plane, I thought these instructions seemed harsh. If a four year old is gasping for breath, he needs oxygen first! But the issue is that you can’t help those smaller and weaker than you are if you are dead! You have to breath in that life-giving force yourself before being able to help others receive what they need.

Are you struggling with hidden issues that you’ve pushed down for far too long? Insecurity, feeling unloved, people-pleasing, depression, addiction, grief, anxiety? What do you strive so hard to hide? My friends, we can never truly be healed, and help others, until we have brought those problems to the surface and exposed them to God’s healing light.

Our Father wants us to have a desire to help others and to live a life of loving, sharing and giving. But the honest truth is, until we let Him heal us too, we will never reach our potential that He’s created for us. Don’t be so intent on running ahead to ‘do’ that you miss the gift He wants to give you today. Strap on the oxygen mask!