There was a time in my life where I wanted to spend my life doing international missions. I had a youthful desire for adventure and living an extraordinary life. I wanted to travel several times a year, or maybe just stay there for extended periods of time. For a moment, I thought things like getting married may interfere with the dreams I had for my life. 

But that all feels like a distant memory now. Life has changed a lot since then, and the margins of my life feel so narrow. Being a wife and mom and employee and all the things consumes much of my days. Sometimes I wonder what big thing am I doing? Am I changing the world like I once hoped to do?

Can I share something with you that I read in Scripture that I have probably read 100 times before but all of a sudden felt so profound? Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”. Paul says here that our good works are prepared beforehand by God. And what do we need to do? Walk in them.

I think we spin our wheels sometimes wondering if we’re doing enough. We agonize over our narrow margins, and how we seem to no longer have time for the things we used to. But one thing we CAN do is consider the good works that might be already prepared for us today. A conversation with a coworker, a person who needs help at the store, a frazzled mom at soccer practice, even being snuggled up with our kids before bed. These things might not look as glamorous as we once dreamed, but they are still good and meaningful and opportunities to share the gospel and make disciples. I don’t mean that we should never consider how we spend our days and hours, but let us not be discouraged in busier seasons. Maybe the extraordinary that we once envisioned is actually just extra ordinary. 

It reminds me of this quote I read once:

“I expect to pass through this world but once;
any good thing therefore that I can do, or any
kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature,
let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it,
for I shall not pass this way again.”

So, as you travel through each day, consider the good works already prepared for you beforehand. Don’t miss being a minister of reconciliation in the mundane everyday. Your klds will grow up, your margins will once again increase, your work may look different then. But you’ve got good works to do today. Prepared for you by God. Walk in them.