Is there anything I can do to help?

He walks in the kitchen and says, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
I was preparing Sunday lunch. The oven was going, the stove top was steaming, the cutting board was out and I was in "full speed ahead" mode.
I answered. "The dishwasher needs unloading".

Pause.

"I mean something I want to do."
"That is not what you said. You said, is there anything I can do to help?"

We exchanged a few more times in jest of the situation. An offer to help, that was really just a polite gesture with no real intention. It was nice to hear can I help. But in this case, on this day, the response my husband wanted to hear was...no, I'm good.

The whole conversation got me thinking of how we come to Christ. We say in our most pleasant voice of prayer, Lord, use me. Where do you need me? What would you have me to do?
And then we hear the answer. We see the road and the clear path to where God would have us to serve and we pause.

That was not what I was thinking God!
Are you sure this is my calling... I really wanted to serve over here.
I want to do this, but that...that takes me far away from everything I know I can do.

Recently, I have prayed some tough prayers. They are tough because I am asking God to take me outside of what I can do alone and I am asking Him to mold me for what He wants me to do. (To unload the dishwasher would be so much easier!) At dinner last night I shared a prayer with my ministry partner...she said,"would you stop praying that!" We laughed together because we knew that it was the right prayer, but we knew it would stretch us.


I wonder. When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples what would have happened if He had first said, wash the feet of your brother?

Would the response have been positive? Would the disciples have been willing to take the dirty feet of another into their hands and humble themselves in such a way? First Jesus "poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples feet" (John 13:5). First, Jesus demonstrated. Then He explained, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will after this" (13:7). Last He instructed.  "If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you" (13:14-15).

He gave the example.

When we come before the Lord to ask how He would use us let us come with a spirit of willingness. If the instruction comes and we are uncertain and less than excited to wash dirty feet, let us remember the One who first washed the dirt himself. He does not ask of us what He has not yet first demonstrated, explained, instructed and given us the strength to accomplish.

Pray today and ask boldly and willingly, "Is there anything I can do to help"?

Serving Grace = Becoming Grace

Satan has been on me lately. Telling me that I am not beautiful, that I cannot change my eating habits, and that I am just not good enough to run a half marathon. Despite my daily posts of joy and thanks, Satan has been stealing my joy a little at a time and I know it. He wants me to doubt me, to doubt God and to not give thanks....he wants me not to be or feel blessed.

Why? Because if I do not feel blessed then I cannot bless others. In Genesis 12: 1-3, God speaks directly to Abram and was telling him to go simply stating “leave your country to a land that I will show you” and then, God said “I will bless you...and you will be a blessing”. God did not tell Abram where he was going, just to simply leave and go. An endless possibility of locations but with a promise that he would be a blessing, a “father of nations.”

In her book “One Thousand Gifts”, Ann Voscamp recounts once again the mess that she comes home to, the piles of laundry and the thousand endless jobs that she has to do day in and day out. But, she counts them as gifts to serve, chances to become grace, and turn the endless into gifts a thousand times over. She says “ I look into the reflection in the splattered mirror and whisper to those eyes; yes, today, again, yes, you can bless!” We need to become “a current in the river of grace that redeems the world.” The way to be a blessing? To accept the Blessing. To accept the grace. To reach out to those who have blessed you. To become grace. Becoming the love of God and blessing those He loves.

Today, I got “nothing” done....well “nothing” that I was planning on doing. But I did a lot. See God has blessed me and because of His blessings, I was able to bless another. To be a friend, a support, a gift of grace that I had not planned on being today for someone plus more! But becoming grace is not always about doing, but by our being we can show that we are the beloved of God. I pray today that in thanks for all the gifts that God has given me, that He will continue to make me a gift, because becoming a blessing is what deeply blesses. In order to serve grace, we simply must become grace.

Donna