The True Bottom Line

Someone wise once said, “God is speaking all the time. The question is whether or not we’re listening.” The same can easily be said of the ministry of the Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Every day, God is speaking through us and to us. In the big conversations and the seemingly mundane happenstances of our ministry, God is speaking to both the hearts that are hurting and the hearts of the healing. This means He is really speaking to all of us!

But I find that many – me being the prime example – get so busy in the “doing” of the ministry that we miss hearing the still, small voice of God. We often miss seeing His fingerprints on the day-to-day workings of our ministry. We get caught by the “tyranny of the urgent” and lose sight of what is really taking place right under our noses. I have learned that to hear and see God requires that I slow down, get quiet, and see the Crisis Pregnancy Centers through eyes that miss nothing – through God’s eyes. This blog is my humble attempt to do this and to share with you what I observe.

Today as I reviewed the year-end reports we’re putting together for our ministry, I had trouble focusing on the dollar signs. Because, in the midst of all the figures I saw people. People who in various ways are depending on us. The truth is though that this year our ministry is facing a deficit. But I know that it is not any bigger than the deficit we see in the lives of the women and men we minister to.

Although we are mindful of our need and our responsibility to be good stewards of our resources, we know that God is faithful and He can move on the hearts of those who can – and will – step forward to support our ministry prayerfully and financially. The young women and men staring at the deficits in their own lives don’t yet know that there is a loving God who will perform miracles in their circumstances. Their spiritual and emotional “bank accounts” are empty. They don’t yet know that Jesus paid it all.

So, as I look at those reports the shortfall now has a little more perspective. I will do a better job at communicating our need and I know God will be faithful to provide – perhaps through you. But, at the end of the day, the bottom line isn’t measured by our financial standing. For the Crisis Pregnancy Centers, the bottom line is measured by people. And that’s the bottom line that matters most.