Chasing God

Most of you know that I've barely scraped the surface in knowing what it truly means to follow God, but I do recognize more and more God things in my life and it's because I'm chasing it. I wanted to blog on my birthday (but chose to go sit by precious husband at someone else's basketball game) to admit that I'm now 36 and finally really feel like I'm just now understanding my true purpose. I wish such maturity could come instantanously when we say yes to Jesus. Kind of like the many things my parents told me growing up seemed to crystallize this last year too. Too bad I couldn't have just understood it then but I guess that's we call this life a journey right? And I know I'll never fully get there but I so appreciate how enlightening my 35th year was. You know why I think 35 was so revealing? I'm finally sick of myself. I'm ready to give it up to serve my Lord, my family and those who have not been blessed the way I have. These blessings have nothing to do with me and only have to do for the wise decisions on the part of my family and so many others God has placed in my life to guide me.

This week I have been reminded that we just need to take small obedient steps daily and watch God make miracles. So, here's one miracle I got to be a small part of this week. A 9 month pregnant mom came to the school where Jan and I volunteer some time. She's due end of the month and has nothing for the this baby after having moved several times since the last baby. The family resource counselor contacted our SS class which got in my hands simply b/c we're co-chairing this year. I sent the email to the class. We had multiple families respond and one friend suggested that I talk to the coordinators of the BUMC kids' sale ongoing this weekend. I didn't get that done until the last day of the sale on Saturday. I was there shopping the 1/2 price sale for my own Ruby. Then the Holy Spirit reminds me, I need to get this mom taken care of. I look for someone who might appear to be in charge in this zoo of savy shoppers. Sure enough, my intuition kicked in and the first lady I grabbed was the same lady who my friend told me to contact. (There were 100's of women there.) This lady got me in touch with overall adminstrator of this monstrous kids's sale (can you imagine how many kids clothes/toys there are to resale after gentle use in Brentwood, TN? In fact, this was just one of several sales on the same weekend. If you need a synonym for abundance try Brentwood.) Anyway, I talk to the head lady and just mentioned Harvest Hands (which is the name of the community development corporation that our church dreamed of to take the church outside the walls of our Brentwood sanctuary. )When I said Harvest Hands she lit up and told me about an idea she'd been dreaming. She asked me if I would liason with her to start opening the semi-annual sale to the HH community for slashed prices before the left over items are donated to a local NFP. Basically, the Lord asked me if I could help get the word out.....and I said yes. Once we got that God-given dream worked out, we got back to the very pregnant mama that had been placed in our path to help. She was willing for us to come in at end of the sale and get whatever the mama needed. My friend Susan was volunteering at the sale and walked up. Using my gift of delegation, I asked Susan if she was going to be there when the sale ended and sure enough....she was (which I had prayed in line for God give me someone to help get the stuff b/c we had to get downtown for Ruby's art exhibit.....). So, Susan took over from there and got bouncy seats, strollers, swings, clothes, toys. We combined her loot with the other donations from ladies in our class and met the mama on Monday at the school with 2 car loads. She was so excited!! The best part for me when I drove up, she jumped out and said "I didn't know it was going to be Marco's coach!" Yep, one of her older children was on my basketball team. How cool to be able to be obedient in very little ways and watch God put together a miracles for this family.

Don't know what the next miracle will be but I'm ready to be a part!