My son, Jeremiah, and I were participating in an out-reach called the “Thousand Ten Project” when we learned a number of important life lessons. Those lessons still resonate with me and affect my world vision and my walk with God. This short article is about one of those lessons.
The event takes place on a weekend in late Spring. The idea is to have 1,000 people show up at a central location and bring $10 each with them. We then divide up into teams and go throughout the city spending that $10,000 on needs we discover at the people’s homes we visit. On this particular day, we mowed a lawn for a 32-year-old man that could not because of a brain tumor. While we were mowing the lawn, we discovered he needed an old stove moved out of his house because he had gotten a new one. I happened to know of a young single mom that needed a stove. She wanted to be able to cook for her children, but her landlord would provide a stove. We loaded the stove on my little pickup and drove over to her house. She squealed and cried out loud because our team had blessed her. So far, we have spent none of our $100.
At our next stop, we discovered a family that was about to be evicted from their home. They were caring for 4 children and a wheelchair-bound parent. Moving would be a real problem because of the special equipment they had installed in this rental home. They had gotten behind on rent due to unemployment, but the Dad had found work and was to start on Monday. But the landlord resolute. He was going to put them on the front lawn in two days if they did not come up with $600 today.
We went back to the rally point at a local park and announced that we needed $600 to help a family stay in their home. Immediately a man in the front of the crowd jumped up and told us to wait for a second as ran off away from the crowd. Five minutes later he shows up with five $100 dollar bills. “God told me a couple of weeks ago to have this money ready. I never imagined it was for this. I came over to the park today for the free hotdogs and live music” he explained. He had received direction from God well in advance of the need being shown to him. I am glad he received God’s word for his life with gladness. We took his money and the $100 the team had, contacted the landlord, and paid him the $600 he needed today. We then took the receipt to the family.
Just a few doors down from there Jeremiah pointed out a house where a number of children were playing in the front yard. There were three adults sitting on the porch watching them. “They need help,” he said as we drove by. I was not sure what he saw, but we swung around and pulled up to the front. Jeremiah walked up the porch, told them who we were, and asked if we could help. They needed food. Jeremiah and pooled the money we had in our pockets and bought about $60 worth of groceries at the store up the street and headed back.
When we pulled up in front of the house and they all recognized us. The adults stood up when we grabbed the boxes of groceries out of the back of the truck and invited us into the house. The children playing in the yard dropped their toys, got off their bikes, and followed the food into the house. Mom unpacked the food and started setting up to cook, the children watched her closely. Jeremiah and I left. In the truck, he looked at me and said “Man those kids were hungry.” We drove the rest of the way home full of the goodness of God, sad about the state of humanity in that little neighborhood and very quiet.
The lesson:
I have learned that you will never leave the mission field without a packet full of lessons that apply to your own life. Lessons that will teach you how to live your life, love God and appreciate his blessings. Although it may seem I am about tell you that you should be giving to the poor, yes you should but that’s for another day. Today I want to present a lesson I learned that day that will make your Christmas the best it can be.
That day I learned about receiving gifts. You will give and receive any number of gifts throughout this Christmas season. But will we receive them? We will be grateful? Will we be excited about what is being offered? Those kids that abandoned their play, threw down their toys and bikes to ran into the house to receive the gifts being offered. They had no idea what was in those boxes we were carrying; they were just hungry to receive. Hungry, not greedy. They followed us in and immediately started watching Mom prepare.
God has prepared a gift for us. Are we hungry enough to drop our toys and run into his house and watch as He prepares a meal for us? He has already been to the store and has packed up your blessing, all you need to do is allow him to carry it in the house. God has an awesome life ready for you and he wants to give it to you as a gift. If you will receive him, his blessing, and his direction in your life, you will never be hungry again.
This Christmas season, Gay and I are going to drop whatever it is we are doing and follow God’s blessing right into our house. We are going to enjoy the meal and the call he has prepared for us. Our pray this year is that there will be “Joy to the World” as “Every heart prepares him room”. We pray that you will personally experience the joy of receiving him in your life, in your marriage, and in all that you are.
Be Blessed my friends.
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