Been a while. I know. I am terrible at keeping up on here. I am so glad to not be a writer for a newspaper or something. I wouldn’t ever meet a deadline. Life’s been busy but full of blessings. My wife and I purchased a home, moved, got a new puppy (a 6 pound long haired Dachshund [wiener-dog] to compliment our 72 pound American Bulldog/mutt…yes, they make quite the combo and are already BFFs), all in addition to our already kind of crazy life schedule. So that is part of why I haven’t written in a while but the main reason is…I just am bad about doing it. Sorry.
On to what I wanted to write about…
I took my youth to Passion City Church last Sunday. We try and go once a month and if you are in the ATL, you should at least check it out once. The pastor, Louie Giglio, was out of town (in New Zealand) so they got a “fill in” named Jeff Henderson. Jeff helped start Buckhead Church and is now starting Gwinnett Church. His message was about not giving up on 2011, in regards to our “resolutions” and such. He said to look at the decisions we make through the lens of this verse:
Matthew 22:37-38 - Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
He challenged us to focus on one of the above ways to love God and really push in that area. So naturally this leads me to a story about I how I have started “couponing” the last few weeks.
My beautiful/amazing/caring wife and I were watching TV 2 weeks ago and we ran into a show about how people use coupons to get like $8342035280457.38 worth of groceries for $1.39, or something along those lines. My initial response was that these people have no life and go dumpster diving to find coupons and such [which is probably true] but a few days later I decided to buy a Sunday copy of the AJC and use a few coupons. This was a major deal for me since I have always been too proud to use coupons. Coupons were for less fortunate people or crazy soccer moms. Not me. Well now they are.
I am sure you are reading this [well I am not sure you are reading this but if you are reading this than I am sure you are] thinking, “What does loving God with all your heart/soul/mind have to do with you using coupons?” Here is the tie in. I have started getting discounted products but I still can afford to pay what I was paying for groceries and such prior to couponing, so now I always pick up a few things for the local food bank and still end up saving money or breaking even. So I am using my resources more efficiently [ie. being a better stewart of God's blessings in my life] to help others.
Today I was driving and a guy had a sign saying he lost everything and was hungry. I stopped the car, asked if he wanted food. He said yes. I just so happened to have some stuff I bought for the food bank in my car and gave him a few bags of Chex Mix for him to eat. It doesn’t seem like much but it is what I had. I feel that this was a way for God to respond to my request to be used. I want to be used by God. Sure you see people on the side of the road all the time, but how often does that happen right after you bought some food with the coupons you started clipping because of a show you saw a few weeks back with the sole intention of helping others with your purchase? Now, the food didn’t make it to the food bank but I am just going to go buy other food to replenish it with. In addition to the food bank, God used my crazy new hobby to help a guy eat something and, maybe for the first time in a while, feel almost connected to the world. Like maybe someone cares about him.
A hurricane starts a breeze, a fire as a spark, and the road to redemption starts with a single step.
Will you find one area to love God with all of? If you do, I know you’re 2011 will NOT look like your 2010. And neither will the world around you.
Agápē!
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