True Confessions

Sometimes I am wrong. I imagine the way I think it ought to be and it doesn’t work out that way and I rage (not necessarily showing it on my face but feeling it in my heart).

Many of our church people helping with the Rummage Sale for Reo Elementary School spent a lot of time checking the weather report for Saturday. The plan was to have the sale in the parking lot. We have an amazing location with lots of traffic and we figured all the stuff outside would draw the crowds. With the weather report changing every time I checked it, I know I had decided that God was going to blow the rain away from our little place on the earth. But that was not what happened. We hauled tables and tables of items outside from 7-9 am. By 10 am the rain had started and the outlook looked worse. Our tent almost started flying and we realized we would have to move inside. But let me tell you while I was asking God in my heart why we had to do this, the Central crew made things happen. Chairs were moved. Systems were made. And all that stuff moved inside in a way that was still possible for people to walk around and shop. 

I confess that I worried though. I worried that the crowds weren’t big enough. I worried that all that work wouldn’t be worth the little amount we would make. I worried that our efforts would feel wasted.

Effort is rarely wasted. Worry, though? Worry is always wasted. Especially when God is in the equation.

The rain fell. The people came. The stuff left. And the money came in. At the end of the day I saw the best part of a bunch of people. I saw teenagers to retirees working slow and steady, problem-solving, and generally doing whatever needed to be done. I heard no complaining and saw hard work. I saw a bunch of people with all
kinds of backgrounds working together for a purpose bigger than themselves.

We made over $1200. A bunch of money we didn’t have last week to make the outlook at a struggling school a little bit brighter. And in the end I give all glory to God because somehow he took our efforts and the people who did show up (some who gave much more than their item was worth) and the rain and the building and the chaos and he made something beautiful. That is his business you know: redemption. Taking one thing that is a mess and shining it up, filling it anew, transforming the broken pieces and making it all brand new.

I got a front row seat to the God at work production and it was good. It was very good.