Have you ever noticed that Jesus’ ministry often took place as He went? For instance He healed the woman with the issue of blood as He was on his way to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead. And there was the time He was approaching the city of Jericho when blind Bartimaeus cried out to receive his sight. There are many such “on the way” stories.

We often think of ministry as a planned event. We are going down to a soup kitchen to pass out meals for the afternoon. We are on a prayer team that will be ministering after the Sunday morning service. If we only see ministry in this light we may miss really great opportunities.

It took me a long time to catch on to this. Embarrassingly, I have a horror story about myself along these lines. I was picking up food at a Taco Bell on my way home from work one day and found myself in a very long slow line. I could see that the staff was terribly disorganized.

When I finally got up the register the cashier apologized and said; “I’m sorry. You should not have had to wait so long.” “That’s right!” I shot back, “this was totally unacceptable.” How ugly! I sure missed ministry that time!

Now I try to be more careful. Kindnesses while driving, treatment of servers; smiles to strangers, letting someone go ahead in a line and tons more. These are all ministry opportunities in the Jesus style…as you go.