Just Show Up

I think about this phrase a lot. “Just show up”  

A big part of success in ministry is just “showing up.” For me, being in ministry for most of my life with my father being a pastor, I know all to well how we had to “show up” at everything. Funerals, weddings, church services multiple times a week, youth service, men’s meeting, women’s meeting, and the list goes on.

One very vivid memory that I have as a child, was being in my bed and hearing my father, very late at night, talking on the porch to a very broken man who had shown up at our house because he needed words of love and encouragement. My dad was available and he still is. He instilled this very thing in me.

Most afternoons during the week, I am at the Hope House. There are many things to take care of in my department, but more than that, it is being there. It is being there so the girls know I care. It is being there and being available. Almost every afternoon, there is someone who “needs to talk.” 

This is where fear and trembling overtake me.

I know that 9 times out of 10, it is a case of brokenness and pain that they will share with me, situations that will be hard to take in. My fear is that my ears won’t translate every word correctly.  I sit there so intently trying to understand the words through her tears, but the reality is, I don’t get it 100%. But, I “showed up.” Like my father, I am available.

My response may not be in the most eloquent Spanish, but it is from my heart. More than words of counseling that may be said, this precious girl just needs my attention and the many hugs that follow. She needs to know that I love her and I care and I will continue to “show up.”