Monday, October 29, 2012

A Gift

The best book I have read this year is called Seven by Jen Hatmaker.  If it is possible to be both deep and hilarious while talking about the Christian's response to poverty, Jen manages to hit the mark.  Jen journals about what it is like to give up the excess in seven areas of her life and how she presses into God's heart for the poor and broken by intentionally becoming poor in these areas.    This book stirred me to my core and made me laugh out loud.  It also fueled in me the desire to  better live out God's heart of love for those who are marginalized and impoverished in the world.  And frankly, it contributed to the growing tension in my heart that I wrote about in the last blog!

I am a woman of many ideas, many passions and limited energies.  But while reading Seven, God whispered an idea into my heart. . . and He actually birthed this dream into a reality!!  This last weekend, our 16-month old church, had a clothing giveaway for the poor.  We called it Dare2Share.  About 350 people showed up to receive free clothes, free food and free prayer.  The people in this group were our guests and they each had a face and a story.  They were refugees from Liberia, Uganda, Bhutan, Burma and Vietnam.  They were men and women who have found themselves without a permanent place to call home.  They were people who were unemployed.  They were recovering drug addicts.  They were children, representing their parents' best hope.  Side by side with these guests were members of our church and members of other churches.  They were serving food, helping people shop, holding babies, reading books to children, carrying bags and praying with and for people.   It was beautiful.   A picture of God's family doing what they should do best -- generously sharing the love of Christ that has been lavished on us, extending our hands toward reconciliation, displaying God's compassion toward the poor.

For me, however, the miracles began long before October 27th.  After planting the seed this summer, God allowed me to see another church put on a similar event.  He gave me a team of amazing women with many gifts and compassionate hearts.  He gave my husband -- the practical one -- an excitement for the idea.  And even though we only had 10 weeks from the time we received church approval, He opened doors and moved the preparations along at a breath-taking speed.  Repeatedly, we would come up against an obstacle, pray to God for help and then watch Him move.

But we knew that no amount of planning could guarantee that we would have enough clothes, enough volunteers and most importantly, enough recipients.  We were at God's mercy. . . and that, I learned, is a beautiful place to be.  God lavished us with clothes, lavished us with volunteers and lavished us with recipients.  I like control so much, but Dare2Share took that away from me.  Control stymies faith and God not only wanted to bless the poor; He wanted to grow my faith.  It was like standing on a diving board, scared to jump, but landing safely in my dad's arms.  Each answered prayer was God catching me and after awhile I was excited to jump.  On the morning of the giveaway, we still didn't know how many people would show up; but I woke up excited, like it was Christmas morning and I couldn't wait to open my presents.  When I arrived at the church and saw refugee families lining up an hour early to get in and when I saw so many people show up to volunteer, it was better than any Christmas morning gift.   I felt invited, privileged and loved to be a part of God's initiative.  It made me fear dependency less and actually long for more of those helpless situations.  It made me thankful to be a part of a community of believers who also respond to faith adventures.