11490 Forest Road, Forest VA 24551

Church #167 was a different kind of church service, and maybe that is exactly the point. Today, church was at Virginia Memorial Park, meeting with a special family and helping them with the arrangements they needed, and once again God reminded me that we are still the church, even when there is no pulpit, no pew, no choir, and no stained glass.

It has been a long road on this journey, and I am still being taught the same lesson in deeper ways: church is not only where we gather, it is how we love, how we serve, how we show up, how we carry one another through the hardest moments of life.

I have been so discouraged lately. I have not been making sales at work. I have been stressing over how life seems to be falling apart in so many different areas at once. I have been trying to be a caregiver while working, and that kind of tired reaches beyond your body and settles into your spirit.

It is the kind of tired that makes you question things, the kind of tired that makes your heart feel thin, the kind of tired that can make you forget what is still true.

And one of the things I have forgotten too often lately is to thank God, not just for the breakthrough I am praying for, but for the opportunity to serve at all, for the strength He keeps giving me to hold on, for the people He keeps sending for me to help, and for the simple fact that even when the numbers do not reflect it, the work is still for Him.

That is really hard for me, because I’m so used to being measured by visible results. Progress you can point to on paper. But the Kingdom of God has never measured things the way this world does.

Jesus never looked at a widow with two mites and dismissed her because the number was small. He never looked at a cup of cold water offered in His name and called it not good enough. And I need that reminder right now, because it is easy to feel like I am failing when I look at the numbers, but maybe heaven is seeing something very different.

Maybe heaven sees the showing up. Maybe heaven sees the serving. Maybe heaven sees the loving. Maybe heaven sees the praying, the comforting, the helping, the staying, the giving of yourself when you already feel worthless. And maybe what feels small here is not small at all in the eyes of God.

Today, as I met with this family, I felt the Lord reminding me that when He sends people, He will also provide what we need to keep going. That does not always mean immediately.

It does not always mean the answer comes in the way we want. It does not always mean the stress disappears overnight. But it does mean God does not call us into something and then abandon us there. He will provide what He calls for. He will sustain what He has assigned. He will make a way for what He has asked us to carry, even if that way sometimes looks far different than what we expected. And I needed that reminder sooooooo badly.

Because the worries have been big lately. The fears have been screaming in my head. The discouragement has been overwhelming. The grief has been more than I can handle. Losing my mother has already left my heart bruised and trying to keep walking through work and caregiving and responsibility while learning to cope with a new type of grief has not been easy.

Some days I feel like I am barely holding things together. Some days I know all the verses, all the promises, all the truths I have spent years sharing with other people, and yet my own heart feels like I am drowning. Some days I feel guilty for how worried I am, because I know God tells us not to worry, and still I do. I worry about provision. I worry about the future. I worry about how all of this is going to come together. I worry because I am human, and because when life feels like it is unraveling in several places at once, the mind can become a battlefield.

But even now, the Holy Spirit keeps bringing me back to the same sermon…

Love one another. Keep loving. Keep striving. Keep serving. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Not on the numbers. Not on what we lack. Not on the visible results. Not on the fear. Not on the discouragement.

On Jesus!!!

Because if I let the numbers become all I see, I will lose sight of God who actually called me. If I let the results determine my worth, I will forget that my identity was settled at the cross and not in a spreadsheet. If I let discouragement lead me, I will miss the quiet miracles of God still moving through ordinary faithfulness.

That is what I feel so strongly tonight. The sales will come. The results will come. The referrals will come. The provision will come in the way God knows it needs to come.

But those things are not the main thing. The main thing is to keep my eyes on Jesus, to keep reflecting His goodness, to keep serving Him, to keep loving Him, and to keep loving people.

Because if I gain the results and lose the tenderness, what have I really built? If I reach the numbers and forget the mission, what have I really accomplished? If I become so consumed with what is not happening that I stop honoring God in what is happening, then I have let the enemy distract me from the very place where ministry is already unfolding.

And that is a word for more than just me.

There are so many people right now who are weary because what they are doing does not seem to be “working” yet. They are loving people who do not always love them back. They are serving in places that do not always feel fruitful. They are showing up in assignments that do not seem to be producing the kind of outcome they hoped for. They are doing the right thing while the visible reward still feels absent. And the temptation in those seasons is to quit, to harden, to lose heart, to stop serving with joy, to stop trusting that God sees.

But He does see.

He sees the mother who keeps pouring out.
He sees the caregiver who is running on empty.
He sees the worker who is discouraged by the lack.
He sees the heart that is grieving and still trying to serve.
He sees the one who feels like they are giving and giving and not seeing the harvest yet.

And He is not unjust to forget your labor of love.

God is not unjust to forget the love we have shown in His name. He remembers. He sees every act of service, every kindness, every hidden sacrifice, every tired prayer, every moment when we choose obedience over quitting. Heaven is not blind to any of it.

So tonight, the sermon in my heart is simple, but it is one that every heart needs…

Keep loving when you are tired.
Keep serving when you are discouraged.
Keep showing up when the results are not here yet.
Keep your eyes on Jesus when everything in you wants to stare at the storm.

Because Jesus never told us to build our lives on results. He told us to follow Him.

And I am preaching that to my own heart tonight, because I need it. I need to remember that even this hard season is not wasted. Even this discouragement is not final. Even this lack is not the end of the story. God is still writing. God is still providing. God is still sending people. God is still using me, even when my own metrics make me feel like nothing is happening. The Kingdom is not always visible in the ways we want it to be, but it is still moving.

So Church #167 may have looked different, but maybe that is exactly what church is supposed to look like sometimes. Maybe it looks like showing up in the places where people are hurting. Maybe it looks like being the hands and feet of Jesus when life is hard. Maybe it looks like trusting that when God sends people for us to help, He will not fail to provide for what He has asked of us.

Thank You, Jesus, for not giving up on me in my worry, in my discouragement, in my exhaustion, in my grief, and in my striving. Thank You for reminding me that my calling is not first to results, but to faithfulness. Thank You for reminding me that I am not here to chase numbers, but to love people and reflect Your goodness.

And if anyone reading this is feeling the way I have been feeling lately, weary, worried, stretched too thin, discouraged because the fruit is not showing up the way you hoped, please do not let the lack of visible results make you question the value of hidden obedience. God sees you. God remembers. God provides. God has not abandoned the work of your hands. Keep loving. Keep serving. Keep your eyes on Jesus. The harvest belongs to Him.

I cannot wait to see where the Holy Spirit leads next week.

Love you all,

Annie Stewart Lambert