Frank's Calling

Something's been plaguing my every thought for quite a long time now, constantly coming to mind at different times, never relenting to give me the peace and quiet that my heart desires.

Let's talk about our "hearts desires" shall we? We have them, and for many of us, there are many of them. They are those things that seem to steal our hearts thoughts and attention. But what are they really? Are they real? Are they pure? Or are they simply "things" we desire to please the ever nagging worldliness that seems to never let us rest. I think that many of them are just that. But, I do believe when they are persistent and their motives pure, I believe they are from God. They are to be answered and addressed as they are "His" work calling out to us.

I've not been down to the Mission for the Homeless in a very long time to volunteer. I had so many personal reasons why I just stopped going. I was much to busy for some odd reason. There was just no time to go and do God's work any longer. But I'm sure He understands that life is busy with children and jobs and everything in between. More so however, who really would notice if one lowly worker just wasn't there any longer.

Many of the recipients at the Mission are mentally ill in some regard, many are ungrateful at times. When I attended regularly to offer my service work in the kitchen, I grew fond of many of these people. I never thought that "they" were affected by my presence in any way, I honestly believed that it was more for me than them. Until today.

On my way to church today I was listening to the local Christian Radio Station (KFM 95.5) and at that time in the morning on Sunday's, they broadcast one of the local church's sermons over the air. Pastor Jeremy's message today was "The Nudge". I thought, "wow, the nudge huh?" And the "Mission Nudge" came to mind immediately. But as always, I reminisced what it was like when I volunteered, only to follow that with what I did every time I thought about it, saying to myself, "Yah, I gotta get back there." Within moments of making that commitment silently to myself, I was off thinking of something else. You know, one of those thinkers, and never a doer type of person.

I arrived at church this morning and listened to the wonderful message about walking in faith with Jesus and the condition of immature believers. What this is referring to is those of us who believe in Christ as our Saviour from sin, but are fleeting and go astray all the time. We get caught up in the worldliness of sin and stop walking our Christian journey for a promise of something more immediate and tangible. But the Lord is faithful even when we are faithless. (Luke 22:31-32)

So after a wonderful, spiritual message, I decided to get back to God, devote some of my time to Him daily. Yup, I was going to do it this time. I wrote down on my bulletin from church "The Nudge- Mission". I was going to commit to going back there and listen to God's consistent and ever so persistent "nudge". Feeling pretty good about that, I prepared to leave after the service was done, when one of the members approached me and said "I have a message for you." I responded and said, "Really?"

She proceeded to give me a small piece of paper with a handwritten message saying,

"Frank-at the Misson was asking for you. He thinks you work at a bank :) "

I can't tell you what this did to me. My eyes filled with water as I stared at the slip of paper addressed to me. I looked up in disbelief at the messenger to see her eyes filled with tears. I asked her "Frank? You mean Frank, like kind of crazy Frank? Like he uses the mission?"

And she replied to me, "Yes, Frank. He said you used to talk to him all the time and he was wondering if I knew you. He asked me if I knew the short girl who used to talk to him and was sad that you weren't there anymore. So I told him that she went to my church and that I would tell her he was asking for her."

God places things on our hearts for the good of His kingdom, for us to do His work while we are here on earth. I am so very blessed to have heard this nudge from Him directly. There is no other way I can explain why these things happen. We can all hear Him, if we learn how to listen. I had a dream/vision after my dad's passing, and in this dream he said to me, "I am always here, you just don't know how to see me yet."

I believe that God is always here and talking to us through others and through our hearts, we just have to learn how to see Him and hear Him.

Thank you God for this special day today. I'll be seeing Frank soon. I promise.