The Step
In October, a wild idea began to take root in me, a crazy scheme. Call it outrageous, call it mundane. I decided to become an ambassador for the noonday collection. The step in itself is perfectly sane. The insanity might just come in adding
one. more. thing.
Sometime more is less and less is more and there’s not much telling till you are smack dab in the middle of it.
Friday night I did it. Piles of paperwork shoved in the garage, kids tucked in bed early, food, jewelry and scarves spread all across the kitchen, I waited. …and they came.
{And surprise-surprise: they didn’t care about the legos being strewn or the mess of papers on the fridge!}
Friends I hadn’t seen for eons – they came. The noonday collection was an excuse – it made me open a house that’s been a tribute to hermit-dom. But the noonday collection was also a feature. It made for great conversation – how to empower the poor, expanding markets for their beautiful products, stories of homeless families now with lives full – school, car, job, home, employees of their own, adoptions funded, jewelry made from artillery, women with HIV being able to afford medicine…{This company has beauty in every corner!}
I won’t lie. I was nervous, and tired. No idea if I could do it. Could I get the house ready? Hold a decent conversation? Have my noonday stuff together? Relax?
I took the wide leap of faith and I found it – I found the blessing on the other side…the blessing of community and purpose. I got to get to know ladies better from so many fragments of my life, neighbors, preschool moms, church friends, teachers, old friends and new ones.
There is always that step – that paralyzing step of surrendering your home, your pride, your self, your expectations, opening the door to the unknown. Is that step ever easy? But there can be life on the other side.
I recently read John 5:38-40
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
It was a step that these intellectuals just couldn’t take – that step between knowledge and belief. They poured over words but failed to believe, to choose life. That’s THE BIG STEP. Inviting people into my home…not such a big step, and yet it seemed ominous and held such blessing behind it!
What life-giving step are you hesitating to take?
a Rearranged Life 