Do you ever feel insignificant, like the things you do for God are small and of little consequence, like drops in a bucket? Tychicus was a servant of God in the early church, a friend and helper to the apostle Paul. An Asian Christian from what is now known as Turkey, he probably met and ministered alongside Paul in Ephesus.
Some love is fleeting—conditional, transactional, or dependent on circumstances. But then there’s the kind of love Ruth showed Naomi—the kind that stays. When Naomi had nothing left to offer, Ruth chose her anyway. She didn’t just say she loved Naomi; she lived it. I think about this as I remember sitting beside my mom in her chemo chair. Her once-strong frame now frail, her smooth, bald head under a baseball cap. That day, she asked me to have lunch with her during treatment. But I was too busy—I “needed” to get in my lunchtime workout and eat my salad with light dressing. Still, she asked.
As the primary caregiver for my husband, battling stage 4 cancer, I often felt like I was on a relentless merry-go-round. Each day began with an emotional toll that was hard to bear, filled with doctor appointments, medication schedules, and the heart-wrenching reality of watching someone I love fight for his life. One particularly exhausting evening, I found myself sitting in my car, tears streaming down my face, feeling utterly overwhelmed.
Sometimes, I wonder how God could ever use me. I have a sinful past. And even though I am a Christian now, I still make mistakes. I’m an average woman, wife, and mom. I am not a public speaker. I don’t have any formal writing or Biblical training. Who am I to think I could do anything to help God further His kingdom?
I stood at the kitchen sink, dishrag in hand, feeling as though I was stuck in a monotonous cycle of household chores. No matter how clean my kitchen might become, a new dish would appear within moments of the sink being emptied. A trail of crumbs would be scattered about the floor as soon as the floor had been swept. Freshly folded clothes hadn’t been put away before the laundry room had a new pile forming in the corner.