I am working my way through a book/journal called The Live/Dead Journal. It is a compilation of reflections for 30 days from missionaries in some of the toughest places on the planet. Modern day apostles.

The reflection I read today began with the tough passage from Luke 17:7-10

⁷ “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (NIV)

When we enter into labor for the Lord, what DO we expect? This writer shared her experience as their family went to the Sudan for the first time. Shockingly, people didn’t flock to Jesus simply because they showed up!

This journal challenges my life because too often we have some small (or big) hope that if we sacrifice in some area of ministry certainly someone will notice… right? Well… maybe not! But what do you expect? For this missionary, she said, “… I had forgotten that it was my part just to obey, that Jesus is my just reward…”

Then, these words:

Do you expect to surrender once in an air-conditioned church, kneeling on a carpeted altar with a handy box of Kleenex perkily waiting to be plucked… and then from that point on to sail without contrary winds into God’s sheltered will? Or do you expect God to wring the self out of you in a painful and lengthy process using circumstances and shattered expectations — and then surprise you with how good it feels to have Him image stamped deeply into yours.

What DO I expect in my service for my King?