Our Daily Bread: Lead Like the ShepherdChikamu

Find Your Field

The harvest is great, but the workers are few. -Matthew 9:37

Midway through her first year of teaching a Deaf class, Leisa’s students confronted her with a blunt question: “We heard Jesus is coming back. Is that true?”

Leisa froze.

A temporary divider was all that separated her classroom from the office of her boss. She wasn’t permitted to provide religious instruction in this public school.

But to help the students practice lip reading, Leisa always spoke out loud while signing. She took a deep breath—and told them about Jesus. The students watched intently. This was all new to them. When she finished, one of them asked angrily, “Why don’t [hearing people] want Deaf to know?”

As Jesus walked through Galilee, He saw crowds of people and “had great compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

He pointed this out to His disciples. “The harvest is great,” He said, “but the workers are few” (v. 37). After asking His disciples to pray for more workers, He then sent them out into those very fields (10:1-15). God would use them to build His church.

That day in Leisa’s classroom, a spark ignited. God gave her a passion to reach the Deaf. He’s using her gifts to share the good news of Jesus with people who can’t hear. She’s invested her life in their lives. She’s found her field—those she can shepherd.

Tim Gustafson

What unreached “field” is around you? What will you do to reach out to the people there who need Jesus?

Dear Father, please help me find my field and love and lead the people in it the way You love and lead them.