"What Do YOU Do?"

This is one of the most difficult questions I have been asked whilst living here in Be’er Sheva…and I get it pretty often! At first it was really difficult for me. It’s easy for me to say “baali lomed rafua be ben gurion universita!” (Translation: my husband studies medicine at Ben Gurion University). However, some people want to go deeper. They don’t only want to know WHY I’m here, but WHAT I do here. In answering, I always felt insecure as if I had no identity. I’m not a student, I can’t work, and I don’t stay at home with children. For some reason I have been asked that question a lot lately, and I mostly just reply with rosy cheeks and a sheepish grin, “Uh, I just live life here in Be’er Sheva.”  People laugh and I’m off the hook.

Lately, though, this question has led to feelings of uselessness. What DO I do? Am I doing anything meaningful? I sometime feel as if I have some kind of identity dependent upon what I do here. Graciously, my husband reminds me over and over that my worth is not found in what I do, it is found in Jesus. The Lord is teaching me (and I am, by no means, claiming to have learned it) to be content in what HE gives me. This doesn’t take away my responsibility to pursue opportunities to serve here, however, I must remember that it is He who gives me grace to pursue and it is He who brings about opportunities to serve here.

Over and over I am reminded of Colossians 3:24, that “ [ I am] serving the Lord Christ.” Whatever I do, laundry, dishes, teach English, or learn Hebrew, it is Him whom I serve in these things, and it is Him whom I desire to make much of. I have nothing; no service, no ministry, and no relationship except that which has been given to me. It is He who gives me stewardship of these things. I am learning to praise Him for what He has given me and continue to be steadfast in seeking new ways to serve. What a kind and gracious God, who allows us to take part in His work. I am thankful that my worth and my identity lie not in what I do, but in what has already been done in Jesus. Praise God.