Exhausting Oneself in the Service to the Lord

This little 9-year-old totally captured my heart. Her dad is one of our new Cities4Life  on-fire volunteers. Since it was Columbus Day and his girl was off from school, he brought her to the abortion center sidewalks  to minister to the women who believe abortion is their only choice. This girl told me that when her dad picks her up from school, he always tells her about what happens on the sidewalk. She remembered one day when he arrived and said, “It was awesome!! Five women chose life for their babies.”

So Maddie joyfully accompanied her dad, eager to offer help to the women. She and her dad arrived at 10:00. She smiled and spoke cheerfully to everyone, an effervescent spirit of unselfconscious delight in being alive. While on occasion the post-abortive women give us the finger and angry words, most smiled at Maddie.

When our morning team left, our first new afternoon team arrived. Maddie told her Dad she didn’t want to leave. She stood beside me, looking eagerly at the cars as they entered and left the parking lot.

“OK Maddie,” I told her, “Do you want to try to offer them the pamphlet?”

“Yes!!!!”

I coached her on what to say and for the entire afternoon, little Maddie sprang into action if a car pulled down the driveway. She was there until our team decided it was time to pack up as the last abortive woman left. One woman had chosen life that we knew of. It was 3 pm. Maddie had not had lunch nor paused in her smiling enthusiasm. Her dad told me she didn’t want to leave at all, but since we all were leaving, he was able to convince her it was time to go home.

“Did you want to do this?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She nodded with her head bobbing up and down.

“Why?”

“Because even if they do it (the abortion), we are offering help.”

When I got home, I got a text from Maddie’s dad. He said, “She gave it her all.”  It was a photo of Maddie fast asleep in the car.

When was the last time you exhausted yourself completely to obey the call of God to help others? I know. Little Maddie really convicted my heart too.

***************

Colossians 3:23-24 

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Mark 10:45 

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Old is Gone....or at least going....

     It is the last day of the year and I am sitting here realizing what a year filled with firsts it was. I am grateful to be sitting and not flat on my back coughing, sneezing, and worse...

     It was a nasty bug that attacked me for 5 days, but I have awoken today feeling almost normal! This is wonderful since my son Matthias and his wife Karissa, who makes the very air smile, will be here for the weekend. I am not filled with energy yet so the plans are simple and the meals will be made on the grill, which means not my domain, but the hubby's. My sisters pulled a fast one on me, though. They scheduled a visit to see my folks when I was sick so I was unable to go. And I would so want to see all of them. The world is never perfect.

    But it is the last day of 2011 and we seem to have survived. There was great upheaval in our home and as I mentioned, many firsts-  first year homeschooling high school with Asherel, first child getting married, first time ever learning Kreb's cycle so I understood it (sort of), first time ever Arvo was laid off from a job and a few painful months in a horrid economy without work, first book I have ever published, first time our little rescue dog ever double "Q'ed" at an agility trial, first time I made homemade cream of mushroom soup, and first time I followed a recipe from start to finish (except for one minor substitution not even worth mentioning, unless if by some quirky rule of cooking, you are not supposed to substitute sweet potatoes for onions....).

     There are others. For example, I joined my first "writer's club" only to find out it was developed for Indian writers. I am sure my strongly Christian book is being well received....The moderater kindly told me it was fine for me to join, nonetheless, and I have come to have a strong affinity to India so have enjoyed reading the group posts.

     The old is crawling out and the  new tumbling in. I won't be making any resolutions. I never do. I started recognizing many years ago that any change that comes over me permanently is not from me. It is the transformative wonder of God in me, the miraculous stripping away of what I have been to what I can be, and one day, will be.

     Happy New Year!

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!