He has Anointed Me!

The other day I was on my way to church and passed a convoy on the highway. It consisted of 3 or 4 trucks and trailers. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed them if they hadn’t have been painted a bright red. There was a pickup truck pulling a large enclosed trailer, a couple of semis, one pulling a tanker trailer and another pulling what appeared to be maybe a bathroom / shower trailer, plus another vehicle or two, all red with “Disaster Relief” emblazoned across their sides. They were heading south, presumably destined for an area that had been effected by Hurricane Ian. I exited the highway shortly after passing them and watched them in my mirror from the offramp. There was just something about them, plodding along the highway, heading straight into a disaster zone, ready to offer hope and comfort to those so recently devastated.

As I watched them, I thought about the church and how people should see us. I’m not saying we should paint our vehicles red and splash “Disaster Relief” across the side, but isn’t our mission the same as theirs? When sharing His mission statement with the people of Nazareth, Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come” (Luke 4:18, 19). As His body, his hands and feet, here on earth, our mission should be the same. We should be charging straight into the disaster zone of earth, ready to offer hope and comfort to those who are devastated. And maybe, as a result, we’ll introduce people to the One who gave everything for them.