How Big Can You Imagine?

An amazing thing about our God… he always outdoes himself.

This past Sunday I was to preach a sermon on the last of the “I AM” statements in John – “I am the true vine” from John 15:1 (http://surrenderdaily.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-am-true-vine.html). A big part of the emphasis of that message was to be our obedience to Jesus’ command to love one another (John 15:12, 17). To emphasize that very thought, I wanted to do something “lovable” for my congregants. Remember, though, that I serve a congregation of elderly residents of an assisted living center.

Originally, my plan was to get a few of my friends together on Saturday morning and clean up wheelchairs and walkers. Nothing special, just a small act of kindness – well intended… God had something else in mind.

Last Sunday (Sunday-week that is), the youth pastor at one of the local churches approached me with a problem. He was having a weekend-long discipleship event for his kids (known as Kappa-Chi Weekend). This would be a very large event, and part of the weekend itinerary was a local mission project. The event included about 300 kids and he was spreading out the kids in the area… but he was running out of project ideas. He wanted to know whether there was something that some of his kids could do at the assisted living center. Hmmm… Serendipitous.

To make a long story short, he ended up sending about 15-20 kids to the assisted living center. In addition to cleaning wheelchairs and walkers, we were able to interact socially with a large number of the residents and even had a 2-hour Bingo-athon! And may I say two words about that… first, don’t mess with little old ladies playing bingo – they take it very seriously. Second – don’t think you can outlast them playing bingo – unbelievable bingo-stamina!

The point is. If me and one or two of my friends had gone to clean wheelchairs, it would have been a great act of kindness. However, what God did instead… pretty amazing and far more impactful than what I originally had in mind. The kids got a blessing out of it; the residents got a blessing out of it; I got a blessing out of it - Everybody was happy.

Don’t underestimate what God can do with just a little bit of availability.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.