Guest columnist Sarah Han reflects on making space to join Jesus in His mission every day.
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Everyday life often feels like a hamster wheel of daily demands with work, school, relationships, home and church. But what if we began to see those daily rhythms as moments filled with divine possibility?
In Matthew 9:37–38, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
This is often seen as a call to action – get out there and do something for the Great Commission. But there’s something else here – the quiet assurance Jesus is Lord of the harvest, and so the mission of God isn’t ours to initiate, carry or fulfil. It belongs to Him. God is already at work all around us, lovingly and persistently drawing people to Himself in the everyday places where we spend our days.
This is a radical shift for so many of us who experience our faith life compartmentalized into church on Sundays and maybe a midweek Bible study – over against rest of life, from laundry to deadlines to school runs. What if the gap between those sides of life is where the harvest invitation lies?
What if God is already actively at work in our everyday lives outside church, just waiting for us to notice? Theologians call this the missio Dei – the mission of God. It reminds us mission isn’t something we create or carry alone. It begins with God, and it’s at work all around us, even when we’re not aware of it.
The harvest is already plentiful, not in some faraway place, but right now in my neighbourhood, my workplace, my grocery store. And Jesus is the Lord of it. The challenge isn’t that the harvest is failing due to lack of workers, but that our lives are often too full for us to notice it.
It’s become such a norm in our culture for everyday schedules to be packed and for our attention to be pulled in every direction daily. Even in our churches, we can be so busy running programs we don’t notice the spiritual hunger around us in our everyday lives. But what if we made room?
What if we slowed down enough to listen – not just to sermons and podcasts but to the people in our everyday lives? Creating margin is not just about better time management or learning how to balance it all – it’s a spiritual practice we must counterculturally pursue.
It’s believing if we leave margin in our calendars, God will show us where He’s already moving all around us. It’s replacing our fears of not doing enough with having the faith that Jesus has already finished the work of salvation and is presently doing more than we realize.
My view of sharing my faith started to move in this direction when I heard the popular missional phrase, “You don’t need to bring Jesus into your workplace – He’s already there.” Instead of thinking of evangelism as a task I had to muster the courage to do, I started seeing it as joining in on a conversation Jesus was already having with my coworkers, my neighbours, with strangers in line at the grocery store.
My calling wasn’t to start the mission. It was to join it.
What if God is already actively at work in our everyday lives outside church, just waiting for us to notice?
This shift is more than theological, it’s practical. It means intentionally creating space in our lives to pay attention to what God is doing around us. It could be taking a longer walk and praying as we go, asking God to open our eyes to someone who needs encouragement. It might mean regularly setting aside an evening not for more church meetings but for inviting over a neighbour. It could look like asking the grocery clerk how their day is going and really listening to the answer.
God’s mission doesn’t need superstars, it needs people willing to be present daily. It’s being attentive to the Spirit, available to others and being grounded in the belief Jesus is already leading the way.
And here’s the beautiful irony – when we create margin to join Jesus in His harvest, we find the stagnation that sometimes dogs our Christian life starts to crack open with wonder. Conversations happen, stories emerge, relationships get kindled, and joy re-enters. Suddenly we’re no longer just surviving spiritually on our hamster wheels, we are thriving as we participate in harvesting adventures far bigger than ourselves.
So as we take Jesus at His word, let’s ask the Lord of the harvest to send us, and let’s slow down enough to follow Him. Not just in the rush of church activity, but in the quiet courage of everyday presence.
Because the harvest is plentiful, and Jesus is already there. Adventure awaits.
Sarah Han of Toronto is assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Tyndale University and director of the Tyndale Centre for Pastoral Imagination (Tyndale.ca/tcpi). Read more of these columns at FaithToday.ca/CrossConnections.