I'd even eat a banana.

Today, I was supposed to send a message to one of my camp directors for the summer giving 3 names & emails of people who are very encouraging to me and who mean a lot to me. I found it incredibly hard to narrow it down to 3 people, and felt overwhelmingly blessed in that moment... so often I forget to be thankful for the people in my life, whether they are near or far!

But that was just the side note. What I really wanted to share is a verse I stumbled across today while reading The Missionary Call by M. David Sills (so far, a great book given to me by a great friend!). It's Isaiah 49:6. It's talking about Jesus, but it brings joy/yearning to my heart:

"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of
Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for
the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

I realize that not everyone is called to buckle the seatbelt on an airplane and fly across the ocean to live a missional life, and I am completely cheering on those who stay and mobilize or send. But this verse reflects the core of my heart, the gradual calling I have felt, the "ready to go, but willing to stay" mentality I have come to possess. Oswald Chambers describes this stirring feeling in My Utmost for His Highest:

"[It] may come with a sudden thunder-clap or with a gradual dawning, but in
whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural,
something that cannot be put into words; it is always accompanied with a glow."

I definitely feel this glow and an ever-increasing excitement when I think about the prospect of trapsing through the jungles of some uncharted area in order to find someone who doesn't know Christ. I joke all the time about it, but I'm serious- I'd live in a shack eating bananas off the tree if I had to, if that's what it would take. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 that he feels "compelled" to share, and in Philippians that it is his joy to share!

I am more than happy to have this glowing, bursting feeling of excitement for unreached people and Jesus-sharing!