The sacrifice of family

While he was still speaking to the people, behold his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?"And stretching out his hand toward his disciples he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!"

                                                                              Matthew 12:46-49

My sisters visited this weekend. They left, and I think they took a little bit of my heart with them. We laughed and played cards, we ate, and played tag with the kids. We recapped struggles and joys of childhood, we plotted our sisters cruise plans, and lamented living 8 hours apart for 10 solid years now. (And it wasn't even all my sisters!)

This is perhaps one of the most difficult passages for people to "take." What in the world could Jesus be talking about? His mom just wanted to talk to him. How rude! What is all the talk about ministering to your own family in the New Testament? Here's Jesus blatantly disregarding the people in His own household. (Of course this isn't true, but isn't it a frustrating passage at times?)

Here, sisters, is the reality of life in ministry. One of the most difficult things about life in ministry is right here in these passages. We are called to give up our family. Yep, give them up. Many of you have been there. You packed up everything you owned in a small u-haul, you had a garage sale or gave things away so it would fit in the cheaper one; you waved goodbye as you watched little pieces of your heart fly out the window and watched the people you love get smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. 

This is the little-talked about sacrifice of ministry- people. God asks us to once again give up the comfortable and the familiar, and turn it in for the new, the unknown, the stranger. 

We walk away from our niece's birthday parties.

We miss out on cooking dinner twice a week with our sisters.

We give up being there when Dad gets the diagnosis.

We aren't the person our nephew turns to when he gets a blue ribbon.

But if we believe God is who he says he is. He has a plan, a purpose, and a hope. When God asks us to give something up, he promises to fill us with so much more.

In my experience, by giving up our family in ministry, intentionally- acknowledging this sacrifice, bringing it before the Lord in prayer, and being honest that it's a painful part of the process…we get our family and so much more. 

Yes, we still miss the birthday parties. :-( But we don't lose our family. It looks a lot different than we expected, but God teaches us just how much He wants to be the one to fill us. He teaches us what family is in the body of Christ, in a way very few people come to understand without this kind of sacrifice. He primes our hearts for joy and struggle with people we never would have met had we stayed home. He gives us family with different last names, but the same Jesus-shaped heart and he gives us sweet, sweet reunions with loved ones far away. 

It doesn't necessarily make it easier, it doesn't diminish the tears, but it does make it better. Knowing it's His.

I'm curious about your story. What is it like for you? Who did you "give up" to follow your husband in ministry? What is the thing you miss the most? Feel free to share it with me. We can support each other in the sacrifice, sister.

Here's a picture of my family…in all their crazy wonderfulness. 

And my sisters and I…until next time :)