.

When Tom and Libby Little were married they had a mutual desire; to serve God. Libby said, “We did feel we wanted to serve God with our lives when we were married. We wanted to serve him. We didn’t know what that meant.”

What that meant for them was spending 33 years serving the people of Afghanistan as medical missionaries. They combined their skills at the time, Tom’s optical skills and Libby’s teaching skills to serve God in one of the most poor and dangerous places in the world. Let us hear from Libby again, "We went, and we thought it was going to be two years, and it was 33," Little said."We loved the people.... The Afghan people were wonderful, absolutely wonderful to us.”

Unfortunately all quotes about their work together must come from Libby these days. Tom lost his life while serving the Afghanistan people just a few weeks ago in a senseless and brutal attack by The Taliban. Tom and Libby’s life together has much to say to us in the area of servant hood, let’s pause for a moment and learn from their life.

Let’s face it; if Tom Little had never been killed the chances are great that we would have never heard of him. That is often if not always the case for people who serve God. They do not serve for recognition; they do so because as Libby put it ‘they wanted to serve God with their lives.’ The greatest servants often serve under the radar and always they serve for their God not to be in the local paper or ten o’clock news.

They had a desire, serve God. God had a place Afghanistan. If our desire is really to serve God then it matters little where, what really matters is ‘will we’. It might lead us to a rural landscape with great need or to a metropolitan area with its slums or to the suburbs that face the dangers of affluence. It matters not where, a servant goes.

Dig deep in Libby’s quote and you will find a very important set of words, ‘with their lives.’ Serving God is not a short term idea. It is not a trip to some faraway place that makes us feel good about ourselves it is about our lives, each moment of it. God may call us to a short term mission trip but He more importantly calls our lives to be on mission.

Finally as we examine these ordinary folks who served God in an extraordinary way let’s look at the motivation that lead them to stay at it 33 years. Again let us dig into Libby’s quote and if you do you will find these words, ‘We loved the people…” Perhaps it is your neighborhood where you grew up or the place in which you work, no matter where God sends you, to do it well and to last at it you must have a Christ like love for whom God allows you to serve.

The danger in using someone like Tom and Libby to speak on servant hood is the extraordinary circumstances of his death, but the real lesson is found in the ordinary nature in their service. Bottom line is we are all called to serve, some in big places, some in small out of the way places, but all called.

What makes Tom and Libby special and different in the world in which we live is not where they served but that they chose to serve at all. In a world that believes blessings are found in what we have they found true blessings in who they served; first God, then His people. Those same blessings can be found by all of us, if we choose to serve.

In closing let’s look at the perspective of Libby Little concerning the life with her husband, “"We had 40 wonderful years together -- of serving together, all those years, doing what we thought we should do. And that's enough for a life."

“And that’s enough for a life” indeed it is for those who choose to serve.

Scripture: Matthew 20:28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Prayer: Dear Lord, May we seek to give our lives in to you. Guide us to our place that you have set aside for us to shine your light. We ask these things in the name of Christ, Amen.