Day 32 | Johnny & Anushka’s story

Reflection

A few years ago I met a young father whose wife is in a wheelchair. Let’s call them Johnny and Anushka. Johnny’s work is to be his wife’s carer. She’s living with MS. Knowing that their situation was a difficult one, it would have been all too easy to believe that they could not be used by God. But they didn’t let this situation define them.

As we were chatting, Johnny told me that when they moved into their home they decided to knock on each of the doors in their street to introduce themselves. As he put it, ‘We can’t go very far because of our circumstances, so we need to make sure that we know the people around us.’

Johnny and Anushka had a purpose behind this. They wanted to build relationships with their neighbours so that they could invite them over for barbecues in the summer and drinks in the winter. They wanted to be able to share their faith, especially in the midst of their difficulties. One of the neighbours told them that they were the first people who had ever introduced themselves like this before on the street.

Over the next months, it became a lot easier to invite their neighbours round, because they had made the first move of introducing themselves. Here’s a couple whose world had become very small, but they’d lived out their purpose right on their doorstep. One might have excused them for thinking that they couldn’t make a difference for God in their neighbourhood. But they did!

Lord, even when my world seems smaller, help me see the bigger picture. May I take your words and put flesh on them and share your love with my neighbours today.