{"id":6792,"date":"2023-12-05T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=6792"},"modified":"2023-11-28T20:15:09","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:15:09","slug":"on-being-sent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=6792","title":{"rendered":"On Being Sent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A couple of weeks ago I told Marvin Campbell’s story<\/a> of sharing the gospel with a man on an airplane. Marvin didn’t miss that opportunity<\/a> as a whole church full of people did recently. Someone else who doesn’t miss many opportunities because she views her life from the perspective of being sent is Heather Holleman, a teacher of advanced writing at Penn State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I relate to this story, first, because I also was down with an infection recently and had to go to urgent care. And second because Heather embodies what I’ve been trying to encourage us to do: live on mission. See what you think about this blog, dated November 27, 2003. I quote it in its entirety:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My cold turned into an ear infection and pink eye this morning, all combined with laryngitis. All day yesterday, I asked the Lord to please heal me so I wouldn\u2019t have to go to the doctor. If I had to go to the doctor, could God at least help me secure an appointment today? Well, God not only didn\u2019t heal my pink eye, but He also didn\u2019t provide a doctor\u2019s appointment where I wanted to be seen. When I called the doctor, the intake person said to go to an urgent care clinic since absolutely no appointments were left for the day. Urgent care would mean a long wait\u2014I just knew it. Ugh!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt so discouraged until I remembered my \u201csent\u201d identity.<\/strong> Was God possibly arranging something and using my pink eye and clogged ear to connect me with someone who needed Jesus? The thought kept running through my mind that the real story is never the presenting problem. The real story is always that God is sending me. I\u2019m where I am because someone there might not know Jesus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely, a doctor could see me right away at the clinic. When I asked him if I could teach at Penn State tomorrow, he told me I could after taking my drops and antibiotic today. This led to him asking me what I taught, why I liked it, and my history of earning a PhD in romantic poetry, the exact same major he had in college before becoming a doctor. Then I asked him, \u201cAre you a church goer? I find that people who love 19th-century poetry seem more open to spiritual things and God.\u201d It turns out, he was going to church and so hungry to learn as much as he could about God. He asked me so many questions. Eventually, I found out about his wife and daughter. By the time I had filled my prescriptions, I had signed two books (one for his wife and one for the little girl who would love This Seat\u2019s Saved<\/a>). The whole time, the doctor said, \u201cThis appointment was more for me than for you, obviously.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pink eye and sore ear no longer mattered. They became a source of delight that I\u2019m now connected to a moment that touched eternity.<\/em> “View It All through Being Sent<\/a>,” Heather Holleman, November 27, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good story, Heather. Thanks for sharing it with us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said to them again, \u201cPeace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you<\/a>.\u201d (John 20.21, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I told Marvin Campbell’s story of sharing the gospel with a man on an airplane. Marvin didn’t miss that opportunity as a whole church full of people did recently. Someone else who doesn’t miss many opportunities because she views her life from the perspective of being sent is Heather Holleman, … Continue reading On Being Sent<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1Ly","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6792"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6794,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions\/6794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}