From Henri Nouwen:

“Sometimes I think of life as a big wagon wheel with many spokes. In the middle is the hub. Often in ministry, it looks like we are running around the rim trying to reach everybody. But God says, “start in the hub; live in the hub. Then you will be connected to all the spokes, and you won’t have to run so fast.”

That ‘running around the rim’ is an awfully good description of typical mission life in Bundibugyo. We all run, run, run helping to solve the problems around us and then run to each other for the pick-me-ups we need. All that running only gets more exhausting when the team is small. Not only are there fewer of us to meet the needs of the poorest but there are fewer of us to offer affirmation and praise to meet each others’ needs after we exhaust ourselves in ministry. It’s a broken model, this “rim living.” It ends in broken dreams, heartache and frustrated recipients to our very imperfect and harried way of ministering. And when we take this broken need for other’s acceptance back to our community of team, we face the second disillusionment in their inability to meet our hearts’ needs. We, in our brokenness and failures, seek acceptance. They, in their brokenness and failures, need it too.

We both remember that we are already accepted, when we live “in the hub.” The hub is the place of deep acceptance from God Himself, when we open the space for God to call us Beloved, and when we open room in our hearts to really hear and accept that truth. The truth that before we were anyone or anything to anybody; we were His Beloved One.

“That’s where ministry starts, because your freedom is anchored in claiming your belovedness. That allows you to go into this world and touch people, heal them, speak with them, and make them aware that they are beloved, chosen and blessed. When you discover your belovedness by God, you see the belovedness of other people and call that forth.”

Nouwen, calls us to follow Jesus model in Luke 6:12-19 and begin our ministry in solitude with God, move on to life of community and finally to the “spokes” of ministry. Sounds awfully good. I have experienced enough frustration and failure and fear to begin know that freedom is found only in claiming my belovedness. And the knowledge that my acceptance of His acceptance is the source of true life for those I love and seek to bring healing, hope and calling to . . . Well, that’s about as good as it gets.

Here’s to “hub” living.