Can't someone else do that God?

One of my pet peeves is those rogue shopping carts just end up hanging out in the wild open parking lots. 

It's not like they just take off with a mind of their own you know on some escape route that leads them to freedom. No....someone left them there, with no thought of walking them to their proper return stalls.

Does this bother anyone else?

It seems I have a rather long list of bothersome pet peeves.

The other day I saw two random shopping carts in the lot, as I was unloading my groceries in the car trunk. It was a Sunday afternoon and I just wanted to get home, you know what I'm talking about don't you? In my weekend book, a Sunday afternoon that's not wrapped around a nap doesn't turn out well.

Anyway, I started my car and turned on the air conditioner to get the car a-cooling. I put my last bag in the car and then the little voice said,

"Go put those two carts away while you are putting yours away."

But...I was in a hurry to get to that nap.

"Come on, they are just right there...I want you to put those carts away too."

"Can't someone else do that God?"

"I'm asking you".  I wanted to walk away. I looked around and the parking lot was like a ghost town.

Sigh...ok. So I grabbed my cart and rode it over to the second cart and then to the third.   (I might as well have a little fun with it, right?) and then pushed them all to the nearest cart stall which is always just a lane away.

"Thank you" ...why... your welcome God.

Now...this isn't a post just to show you how polite God is when He is asking you to do something. It's not about me telling you my good deed for the day. It's certainly not about a pending citizen of the year award with my name on it.

And just so you know, I didn't get that assumed nap either.

As I was driving home, God reminded me of this...

"It makes me happy when you obey, even in the small things, in the things that don't seem so significant."

All of a sudden I knew God was giving me an attitude check. I passed but might have schooched by with a C+. Remember I hesitated a bit before launching into a cart-moving machine.

I did put all carts away that someone else left for dead.

Obedience no matter how big or small is still obedience. And the more we obey in what God asks of us the more he asks of us to obey Him. I like the exchange that happens.  The more I obey, I notice that hesitation disappears and my excuses fade.

It makes me feel good and that my life is right.  As God has taught me many parts of obedience, it always comes back to a simple word.

Yes.

Saying yes to God, no matter what is asked of me.

Back to the cart obedience...I did what God asked of me that day. I said yes to His request.   I am learning that each step of obedience it becomes more natural, less awkward and more so,  worth each step.

Obedience to God is worth it all.

"There's no riches or earthly treasures that will satisfy every longing for Jesus, set my heart on fire, no matter the cost, to let go all I have, to just to follow You....Jesus." ~ Meredith Andrews

Big or small, significant or silly.  Whether a nap is on the line or not.

God show me what it means to follow you and say yes each and every time.

"A Place For Sinners, Not a Museum For Good People"

Thorny places

I liked the slogan of the church as soon as I saw it the Sunday service notes.  We settled into worship and it was obvious right away that the worship leader had spent some time with Jesus.  He worshiped too.

When it came time for the message, the pastor shared the exact same verse I had just read that morning.  I thought to myself...wow..that's cool!  Paul's writings have long stirred me ..and still do.  The more I understand the depth of Paul's circumstances in which he did most of his writing, the bigger fan I am of his style.  If anyone needed mercy, Paul did.   

The pastor shared about Paul's weakness with the thorn in his life.  Paul never mentions exactly what it was that caused him pain or irritation.  But in 2 Corinthians 12:7 - 10, Paul shares.....

"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that..."

And how did God answer Paul's cries for thorn-removal?  God left it right where it was planted deep in Paul's soul.  God's answer came in the form of mercy...

"My grace is enough; it's all you need. 

My strength comes into its own in your weakness. "

Did you get that?  Please re-read ...

I have a thorn...we all do..

Whatever your "thorn" is right now...your answer is God's grace.  Whatever you feel weak in...God's strength will come in and make it strong.  Struggling with a failed attempt?  God meets that with His strength and grace.  Feeling like you can't go on another day?  God won't leave you lacking when you ask Him for His grace.  Grace is complete and fills in all the cracks.

Wait...you say you have something that is impossible to get past?  

Your circumstances are ruined for all of time?  

You have crossed the line this time and there is no going back?

  

You have a fear the size of a  professional football field lodged in your throat and you can't see God's work for the giant crocodile tears that are constantly in your eyes and heart?

Yeah...I know...me too.

When I heard God's answer to my weakness, how it was simple and enough, I was a bawling mess of flesh in the pew on that Sunday.  

Really God...how could it be that simple?  How?

"My grace is enough; it's all you need. 

My strength comes into its own in your weakness. 

I am your portion and in YOUR weakness, I will use YOU..."

Talk about a waterfall of grace...gushing into my heart.  Wow..

The pastor's message was God's cheerleader encouragement that I needed to kick my football field sized fear-filled dream to the goalpost and say "touchdown".  Well...honestly...I have a hard head so..it will take a couple more reviews of the playbook to fully sink in.

But it was definitely a direct word from my God who knows my fear and has teamed it up with His grace and strength.  I know that he wrote the playbook, so there is no contest to consider.  He has all I need to make what He has asked me to do complete and enough.  

To me it's a God-sized challenge, but all I need to do is suit-up.  

When I am faint from practice, I will be met with enough promised grace.  

When I am frustrated beyond words, His cheers will shout hope to continue.

When I bring my "I-can't-attitude" to the field, He will meet me with A-string of "I-cans!"

When I am faint from not getting it right, He will bring me strength in my weakness.

When I am met with the empty blinking white screen ...He will give me all I need.  

Not just enough, but all that I need.  

God knows my needs better than anyone.  As I swallow hard and move forward I know, even my weakest and most broken places, those are even valuable to God.  It's in those thorny-hard-to-figure-out-the-answer places that he will bring His mercy.  I can trust Him to provide the grace and strength he has promised as He sees fit.  He's not running out of grace-laced-plays yet as I submit to His plan.  Wow....  

So...you want to know the name of the church?  Mercy Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The Days I Learned Compassion

Mine looked just like these.....wow!

I was so excited that day...I looked down and there they were, my bright new Red Ball canvas tennis shoes.  I got them for free in the mail.  My grandmother had sent off for them, she was a pioneer in the coupon and mail-in-rebate game.  She would always send of for this or that.  I would sit and watch her for hours on end, clipping and snipping, addressing rebate envelopes.  She had it down to a science.   And when I got something in the mail, it was a special surprise.


On that Sunday morning I wanted everyone to see my special Red-Ball-tennis-shoe surprise.  We pulled up to the familiar house and immediately Francis bounded out, like a race horse out of the gate.  She had been waiting for us.  She jumped into the backseat beside me, bringing with her the aroma of something fried, and wearing a rumpled dress.  I never really understood her enthusiam to go to church and Sunday School with us.  To me....it was the same verse every Sunday.  But that Sunday, you can guess what I showed her first.  Yup...my Red Ball canvas tennis shoes.  


She wasn't nearly as excited as I was about the shoes.  She looked back at her two room house with the roof that always needed a repair.  I saw a glimpse of sadness in her eyes.  I just kept looking at my new red shoes.  They were that spiffy, so bright, so new, so incredible.  I felt so pretty.  It never occurred to me at the young age of eight to give them away.  


My attention was suddenly torn from my new shoes to Francis' quiet manner.  I began to wonder what it was like to have a sick mom all the time.  I wondered what it was like to not have a hot meal on your table three times a day.  I had never been without but I knew Francis had.  My parents had taken her family groceries many times.  I wondered those weird-for-my-age thoughts as I kept looking down at my new red shoes.  I'm sure her dad did the best he could to take care of her.  I assumed they had help from others.  


One day we got news that her mom passed away.  I thought about Francis and wondered how lonely and alone she must have felt.  My sympathy deepened for her as I thought about my own attachment to my mom.  We took some food to her house, my parents stayed there for a long time.  It was all very hard for young heart to understand back then.  


Fast forward to adulthood and I can now see that those Francis days were really days that God sowed the seeds of compassion in my heart.  Seeds that have now grown into full-sized gifts to give the orphaned, the needy, the disadvantaged, the fatherless.  


I don't really know if it was that day of the Red Ball tennis shoes or just the faithful obedience of my parents that unlocked this passion deep in my soul.  My heart is pierced often on a daily basis when mine and the hearts of those who are less fortunate collide.  


Why am I telling you this?  I really just wanted to provoke some thought about God's gifts that maybe lying dormant in your soul.  Acknowledging your God given gifts is really an act of recovery instead of discovery.  I believe God gives them early on so they can be developed along the way.  I think about the many missed opportunities I had with Francis....to speak into her life and let her know that she is loved and that she matters.  That's why when asked to travel half-way around the world to hug on little African hearts, I am the first to jump on board the triple 7.  Secretly though....it's my heart that takes a leap of joy. The same feeling overwhelms me when I connect sponsors with children of Mission of Mercy, tears stream, and I am overcome with joy because my heart is caught in the throws of compassion.


Those red shoes are long gone, but they have left their footprint on my soul.  I treasure the feeling the shoes left.  I treasure God's gift of compassion.  I treasure the less fortunate who need to know that they are God's beautiful.  Even if I don't have have a pair of brand new Red Ball tennis shoes to give them.