Today one of my housemates and I were sitting in the dining room talking about the bible and how sometimes God calls us to do crazy things. She was telling me about a time when God called her to give away something that meant a lot to her, to a guy she had just met. She didn't want to do it. The item was a bookmark of the footprints poem and it had quite a bit of sentimental value to her. Yet after going back and forth with God about it, she got over herself and gave it to the man. Now this man wasn't a stranger on the streets or anything like that, but she didn't really know him either. He was sitting alone, kind of outside of the group she was sitting with and although it was probably pretty awkward, and people were probably were wondering what she was doing, she walked over to him, sat down and handed him the bookmark. She didn't know what was going on in this mans life. She didn't know that he was a recovering drug addict that had just come to Christ a few weeks before and was feeling super out of place at this missions training they were all meeting for. And she didn't know how badly he needed to read that poem and to be touched by God through it. But God knew these things...and because she was obedient, this man was brought to tears!
As my housemate told me her story, it reminded me of the Hairbrush story that Beth Moore often tells (If you haven't heard it, you should watch the youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcjE5a6mVaA). I ended up showing this video to my housemate as well, because I think Beth Moore can tell her own story much better than I ever could. After it was over I shared that in all honesty I don't think I could have done what Beth did. Don't get me wrong, I would totally want to do it. In fact I ask God all the time to use me and allow me to be His hands in feet in this world. Yet, more times than not, when push comes to shove I chicken out.
There's a story in the Bible about a wealthy man who goes on a journey and while he is gone he gives each of his servants some of his money. As soon as the man leaves, the servants who had received the two highest amounts of money immediately go out and double what they had been given. But the servant who had received the smallest amount of money buries his share out of fear. When the master returns he is quite pleased with the first two servants, complimenting them and blessing them by saying "well done my good and faithful servants, you have been faithful with few things, I will put you in charge of many". However, when he finds out his other servant has only buried the little bit of money he's been given, the master is furious...so furious in fact that he takes the money away from him and throws him out into the street. Usually when I hear this story it's shared in relationship to people's talents as an admonishment not to bury what God's given them. However, this time when I thought about this story, I thought about it relationship to these crazy things God calls us to do.
On Tuesday when our team was prayer walking in one of the local churches here in town, I was sitting in one of the sunday school rooms and I felt like God was telling me I needed to go outside and stand in the doorway of the church building and put one of my hands on each side of the doorframe while I prayed for the church. It seemed so strange to me...especially since this isn't like a normal church in the United states that's got it's own lot and a double entryway so no one would really see me. No this church is on the main road, with the wood door literally two inches from the street, and there were a lot of people outside shopping, talking or passing through town on their pilgrimage. Basically I knew doing this would be kind of embarrassing, and so at first I fought with God about it. I just moved to this village a month ago, people don't really know me, I don't want to start off with a bad reputation. But then I had this thought....What if when God calls on us to do these seemingly strange things, he using them to stretch us for bigger works? And what if by refusing to do them we are cutting ourselves off from being entrusted to do more in the kingdom?
It wasn't easy and I'm sure I was red in the face as well, but after that revelation I made my way outside, stood in the doorway, and began to pray. People were looking at me funny as I stood there praying with my arms outstretched and my mouth moving as I spoke out loud in a tiny whisper. I am sure I looked quite the sight (I can only imagine I looked something like how Samson from the bible did when he pushed on the two pillars in the arena and made the whole building collapse, killing everyone!). But as I was lifting up my heart to God, He began to fill me with revelation about the church, where it's at and where He wants to take it (most of which was confirmed by my teammates in their prayers as well). It was like in the midst of my obedience, God was saying..."see, if you're faithful with little I can give you more".
I can't sit here and say that next time and forever more I will always choose to follow God's lead. I wish I could, but let's be honest, pride has a way of winning out some times. However, my prayer is that God will continue to make me stronger in Him and in hearing His voice, so that when I do feel his tug on my heart, it won't be hard to know what to do or even to have the guts to just do it. Here's hoping for that some day at least. Amen.
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