Good morning…
Last Tuesday was a doozy.
Volunteering to help a friend who was moving, I offered to take her final leftover things to a Christian consignment store near us. Driving over, I thought to myself, “Might this be a side ministry God is directing me towards?” I can certainly pick up donated stuff from friends and transporting them to the consignment store, a non-profit ministry which benefits a nearby church by selling gently used items at a lower cost to people with financial need.
Using my husband’s big car, I took armfuls and armfuls of random stuff from my friend’s garage to the loaded car. Driving away, I decided to take everything to our house, wiping it down and organizing it for drop off. That meant armfuls and armfuls of things from the car to our house. I cleaned and sorted, preparing the items as treasures for their new excited owners. Then I took armfuls and armfuls back to the car, drove to the store and unpacked armfuls and armfuls when it was my time to share the stuff. Half way through the process, they said, “We have reached your forty-five item limit.” I had to take armfuls and armfuls back into our car, driving the “no thank you’s” over to Goodwill and saving the rest for today’s Tuesday drop-off.
I am embarrassed to say, this whole ordeal lasted from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm. That’s seven and a half hours of carting stuff in and out, wiping down, arranging, hauling, lifting, sweating. I returned home exhausted from my private labor of love. Very clearly I sensed God’s “no,” this was not a side ministry for me.
Also on Tuesday morning, I had posted about the welcome bags we had created for the ISP overnight retreat at Ignatius House, pampering women recovering from homelessness and addiction. With donated items coming out of the woodwork, our written word community effortlessly filled fifteen beautiful bags with symbols of God’s abundant love. I also shared the donation link to offset the cost of the retreat, which was offered free of charge to these courageous women. Spurred by the Spirit, fourteen from our suetoyou.com community donated $2000 of the $2,625 needed to cover retreat expenses. As things miraculously came together, very little of my own labor was invested in this act of love. For me, with this generative experience, I sensed God’s whisper, “Yes, these – daily blogging, ministering with women, building a bridge to God for the vulnerable – these are the things for which I made you.”
This is what I learned last Tuesday. At age 61, I need to let God do the heavy lifting. When I rely on my own individual effort, I return home exhausted from my own loving labor. Isolating and depleting, experiences like these are a “no” for me. When God’s Spirit spurs and speaks and stirs us as a connected, creative community, together we are motivated to do small, miraculous acts of overflowing abundance. Daily, we are invited to step into God’s “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
We each need to let the Spirit lead, as God does the heavy lifting. When we listen with our whole true selves, our hearts, our minds, our souls, we can learn and discern God’s “yes’s” and God’s “no’s” for us, each and every day. Praise will pour from my lips because You help me learn what You require (Psalm 119:171, VOICE).
…Sue..
P.S. Following this post, one loyal reader gave a Gratitude Gift of $625 for me to share with Ignatius House Retreat Center. As a written word community, we generously filled fifteen welcome bags and paid the entire cost of this ISP overnight retreat for these special women recovering from homelessness and addiction. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Don’t you sense the encouragement of God’s living Spirit?
