Start Where You Are
Start with your wife.
Start with your kids.
Start with your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers.
Make their world more like heaven.
We dream about changing the world, and that’s a good thing. But heaven’s work doesn’t usually begin on a global stage. It starts around your kitchen table. It starts with the people who share your last name or the ones you see every day at work.
You can’t love the whole world well if you don’t love the people right in front of you.
John Maxwell once said one of his life goals is “that the people who know me best will respect me the most.” That line should hang on every refrigerator and office wall. It’s easy to impress people from a distance. It’s harder to live so well that those who see you up close—when you’re tired, hurried, or stressed—still see heaven in you.
Start with your family. I had someone say to me recently, “If it were not for my wife, I could really serve the Lord.” This is a common misconception. Some see serving God and church in competition with home life. Serving begins at home. Giving begins at home. 1 Timothy 5:8 (NIV) “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Be generous to your wife. Buy her something. Rule of thumb: make sure it is something that does not plug in.[1]
The Pastor Who Almost Missed It
Years ago, a well-known pastor admitted in a sermon that he almost lost his family while building his ministry. He was preaching multiple times a week, leading conferences, counseling people, and writing books—but rarely eating dinner at home.
One night, after returning late again, his young daughter left a note on his desk: “Daddy, when you die, will you have time to come to my birthday?”
That broke him.
He realized he was winning the world but losing the people who mattered most. So he made changes. He canceled some travel, hired help at church, and began taking his daughter out for breakfast every Saturday. Years later, she said, “That’s when I got my dad back.”
He said later, “I thought ministry was about changing the world. I finally realized it starts by loving my family.”
You can’t make the world more like heaven if your own home feels like chaos.’
Plan to spend time in the coming months to regularly serve others. Putting aside your own agenda and putting others first will help you to develop humility, character, and others-mindedness. Start with your family.[2]
[1] Josh Hunt, Obedience (Josh Hunt, 2015).
[2] John C. Maxwell, How Successful People Grow: 15 Ways to Get Ahead in Life (New York, NY: Center Street, 2014), 84.
