Streams of Visitors

Have you ever watched streams of people come to visit a sick person?
 
Even prior to the day that Kim went to the emergency room and we found she had almost died of sepsis and half a dozen other illnesses and complications—never mind the stage 4 widely metastasized pancreatic cancer—people visited her from nearby and from various places across the country. 
 
Nurses on the floor often asked, “Who are you? You have an endless stream of visitors.”
 
Since she came home on hospice and has amazingly stabilized, the visitors have continued.
 
I have been witnessing the powerful return on investment of a lifetime of tangibly, sacrificially, and generously loving and leading other people. Kim never became a big church pastor—the one on the stage with spotlights and a big congregation. She was a pastor, church planter, evangelist, intercessor, and mentor; she was also a Korean church coordinator and matriarch of Korean Nazarenes in the USA. She met individual pastors and common people in the trenches of life and ministry. And she profoundly impacted them.
 
She had few big numbers to report, few awards for doing what we’re supposed to be impressed with. Instead: decades of quietly changing lives and changing churches.
 
At the core of it all has been her sold-out commitment to the Kingdom of God expressed in selfless spiritual leadership marked by love and generosity—one person, one pastor, one church at a time.
 
As I was inspired by my father’s legacy (which at its core was the same as Kim’s), I am also inspired by Kim’s as it still unfolds, and as she still gives. How will I live out my own remaining years in the ways I have been called, shaped, and gifted to do so?
 
I invite you to join me in this, if you will.
 
How will you live out your remaining years with love and generosity in the ways you have been called, shaped, and gifted to do so? You may not have streams of people coming to visit, and that’s okay. What matters is what you do with who you are and what you have.
 
Try this, apply it, and see what happens:
· The meaning of life is to know your gift.
· The purpose of life is to give it away.

Art: Gerd Altmann | Pixaby