The Waiting Room

If you have Christian magazines, take some with you next time you are visiting a waiting room.

Your pediatrician might enjoy having Focus on the Family magazines for his waiting room or exam rooms. The magazine could be their monthly newsletter magazine or a subscription. Take a handful of Significant Woman tracts with you on your mammogram appointment for the waiting room. (Beginning Your Journey of Significance and Living a Life of Significance).

Maybe you have a Christian video for your doctor’s waiting room or flyers for your church’s next big outreach event.

Be sure to ask permission to leave materials at:
• A medical office (doctor, dentist, clinic)
• An auto mechanic’s
• A professional office
• And anywhere with a waiting room

Some other materials you might donate to a waiting room:
• Worldwide Challenge magazine
• Creation magazine
• Answers magazine
• Tracts

You might enjoy reading some more stories from my waiting room experiences.
• Well-behaved kids in a waiting room
• Taking a stand against obnoxious TV programming in waiting rooms
• Recycling
• More suggestions

The Walkie-Talkies

I kept looking toward the roller coasters, nervously tapping my foot. I had waited more than a half an hour, instead of enjoying the theme park. I needed to meet up with the rest of the family, but time crawled as I fidgeted on the bench. It was only natural that I asked for walkie-talkies that next Christmas.

For several years after that, the walkie-talkies were a great help on a lot of our vacation trips. Now in 2007, we use our cell phones when we need to connect, but actually our kids really don’t want us to split up anymore. They want us to spend the day together when we go to a park.

The walkie-talkies waited silently in a drawer for two years until last month when I came across them and knew it was time to find a new home for them. They were still in good condition and worth a little bit. However, I don’t do yard sales anymore, so I did not even think about selling them. Instead, I started thinking about who might use some walkie-talkies.

I tried our church because our campus is getting more spread out, but they already have some. I was getting a little tired of the time and effort of looking for new owners when I thought of friends of ours who were expecting their fifth child. This little princess is due soon and will find herself in a homeschool family with four active brothers, ages four to fifteen.

I sent an e-mail off to Jo. She was thrilled and so was I. Now she can stay inside when she needs to rest or watch little ones and know she can easily reach her active boys. The boys will have a lot of fun with the walkie-talkies, too.

Of course, I could have just donated these to a charity. It would have been easier, but it is a lot more fun and rewarding to find a need and help to meet it.

Too Busy With Things

“We have too much stuff!” I fumed as I stumbled past a pile of stuff in the garage.

This wasn’t the first time I had hit my limit on the things we had accumulated. I had been trying to “purge” the house for several years now. I felt like Eustace in C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace was unsuccessful in removing his dragon skin. Only Aslan could do it. For Eustace, the skin symbolized his sin that only Christ could remove. For me, the clinging dragon skin represents all the trivial possessions and projects that consume my time and energy. I have been pruning things out of my life and home with a goal to simplify my life, but it is now time to let Jesus dig deeper than I had been able to do on my own.

It was a revelation to me to learn recently that my struggles to downsize my possessions affect my availability to share Christ. The top four hindrances, in order, that keep Christian workers from sharing their faith are exactly in reverse order from Christians in general (The Top Four – Part One). They are:

1. Busyness
2. Not knowing nonbelievers
3. Lack of know-how
4. Fear

Busyness is definitely an issue for me. I am often too busy with possessions and projects to give people a little droplet of my time that can mean an ocean of eternity for them! I remember experiencing real freedom in this area during Hurricane Frances in 2004. We had evacuated to my son’s apartment, taking only the bare essentials with us. I finally had time that weekend! Without all the things to distract me, I had lots of time available for my family. Unfortunately, we returned home to an unwanted skylight and a puddle of brown water, with blobs of soggy pink insulation in the kitchen, so we were more-than-our-usual busy for a long time after that.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains that the seed sown among thorns symbolized “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.” What was the result of sowing seed among thorns? The thorns choked the plant, “making it unfruitful.”

Some very good questions to ponder from this parable are:
• Am I caught up in the concerns of this life? And in desires for more things?
• Am I deceived by what I own? Is something taking the place of God in my life?
• Am I unfruitful because of what I own? Or because of how much I own?
• Am I willing to let Jesus help me “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” so I can more easily run the race God has given me? (See Hebrews 12: 1 – 3)

As Eustace explained after his experience with Aslan: “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt . . .”

I want to be free to serve, not entangled by so many things. To go deeper may be painful in some respects, but I am ready. It’s not worth holding on to things if they are hindering me in my availability and usefulness.

P. S. If you would like encouragement in sharing your faith, you might be interested in my blog on Way-of-Life witnessing, The Sower.

So That None Are Needy

As I looked through our pantry, I knew we had too much. I boxed up some extra food and took it to church. After Sunday School, I offered it to Mark and Barb.

“Thank you!” Barb exclaimed. “We can really use this!”

I already knew Mark was working extra hours because their housing costs skyrocketed this past year. They were counting pennies to meet their expenses and the gift of food was a blessing to them.

God encourages us to excel in giving and to do it out of love (See 2 Corinthians 8: 7 – 15) We also see in verses 12 to 15 that at times my surplus makes up for the lack my fellow Christians are suffering. At other times the roles are reversed. God desires to meet needs through the Body so that none are needy.

A Tale of Two Boxes

It was a big box, but it was half full of beans. Canned beans. Baked beans. Bags of beans. The trouble was, I hardly ever use beans when I cook.

Because we are missionaries, we were given a box of food. The gift was well-meant, but we would barely use it.

At another time, I received another unexpected gift. Some ladies I did not know, but were from a church that invests in us, got together and had a shower for me. It wasn’t a bridal shower or a baby shower, but just a “love on our missionary” shower. After their party in my honor, they mailed all their gifts to me.

The first box gave a strong impression of cast-offs. The second box was thoughtful and intentional; with a pretty tee shirt and lotions and stationery.

Both boxes changed my way of giving to others. For food banks, I make sure I donate a variety of foods of what I like to eat. For other donations, I make sure my gifts are new or like new.

One Gift, Many Blessings

I paused on my way to the mailbox to chat with my neighbor, Cathy. She, and three family members, were clearing out their garage.

“Would you be interested in a table?” she asked, pointing to a squat, red-and-white plastic table.

“I know a few families with young kids,” I suggested as I examined a minor crack in the Legos table top. “My boys loved Legos when they were little. You wouldn’t throw this out would you?”

“Oh yes, I would,” Cathy smiled.

I hesitated. I had a very busy three weeks ahead of me.

“Well, help me bring it over to my house. I’ll see what I can do,” I offered.

I cleaned up the table and sent two e-mails.

One friend, Helen, wrote, “I’ll ask the Wagners if they would like the table.” Their son, Matthew, a young boy with ADHD, recently showed an interest in Legos.

We don’t live near these families, but we “happened” to be in their area about 24 hours later. I dropped the table off and another friend, Martha, took it to the family’s house. As it turns out, the next day was Matthew’s birthday. Another family knew about the table and bought a Lego set to take to the party.

What may have looked like a hassle turned into a blessing! Instead of one family enjoying a toy and then throwing it out, more than six people were blessed! God promises we reap more than we sow!

Cathy is blessed for giving the table to another family. Helen, Martha, and I are blessed for getting the table over to the new family. Little Gabe and his family are blessed for buying a Lego set for Matthew to use on his new table. Matthew and his family are obviously blessed with the table and with Matthew’s new interest in Legos.

Bread or Seed?

A favorite passage of mine is 2 Corinthians 9: 6 – 15. By faith, the sower casts the seed away from him; seed that could make bread for his family today. He trusts God to provide the bread he needs and to multiply what he sows.

Notice in verse 10 that God multiplies the seed, not the bread. Bread represents the needs that God promises to supply; seed is for God to use to bless others and for the Harvest.

We are to sow generously and cheerfully, not reluctantly nor under compulsion, and also that blessing may come to someone. Our cheerful giving (verses 7 – 8 ) results in our having enough for ourselves AND abundance for donations. If we give by faith, He will multiply what we give (verse 9 – 11). Giving results in praise to God and prayers for the saints (verses 11 – 14). For instance, if I am passing God’s blessings along by investing in a ministry, I will want to be praying for that ministry and praising God for what He does through them.

Do we keep God’s blessings for ourselves, living beyond our needs instead of blessing others? Could those extra things that came my way, really be meant for someone else?

My desire is for God to open my eyes to see the seed (material goods and money) that should be blessing someone and to release my grip when I am holding on to something instead of trusting Him to meet my need. I need His grace to joyfully cast those things away from me, as a sower of His blessings in others’ lives.

“You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” ~ 2 Corinthians 9:11 – 12

Two for One

When the weekly ad for our favorite supermarket comes, I scan it for the red letters, Buy One, Get One Free.

Obviously, when we were feeding three teenagers, this was a great way to stretch a food budget for a family of five.

Now, with just three of us, most of those bargains are not worth it, as the food would spoil before we could eat it.

So, why do I still look for those big red letters every week? For the needy. Since we can afford regular prices, one item is for us and the free item goes to a food bank Sometimes both or all of the items go to the food bank.

John the Baptist said it best: “The man with TWO tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” (emphasis mine – Luke 3:11 NIV)

An Eternal Investment

A young man waited at our door with a container of items at his feet. We have made it a policy not to support things we don’t know about, so I said “no” and then gave him a tract.

I really wasn’t surprised later that day to see the tract tossed aside on my neighbor’s sidewalk. I did not “invest” in this young salesman to “gain a hearing” for the Gospel. Just spending time talking to him would have shown I really was interested in him. Would spending a few minutes or a few dollars have brought an eternal return?

Fast forward several years to last month when I was given a bag of more groceries than I could use. I knew what to do and gave most of them to my neighbor across the street.

“I’ll make soup!” Cathy beamed as she examined the large bag. “My boys will love snacking on the carrots, too.”

A few weeks later, as I was spring cleaning, I brought her a box overflowing with toys that my boys had enjoyed when they were younger. Cathy’s boys, on tiptoe, tried to peer into the box as I handed it over to her.

Last week, a friend and I sat around Cathy’s dining room table to take a worldview survey with her. Suddenly tears filled Cathy’s eyes.

“Last night was very hard,” she explained.

We listened and we prayed and we hugged her. Then, we shared how she could know God personally. Cathy prayed to receive Christ with us! Her tear-stained face was radiant when we left her.

The groceries would have spoiled in my fridge. The toys would have put a few dollars in my wallet or rusted in the garage. How much better to use what Jesus gives to me as a tool to unlock a heart for God!

SIDE NOTE: Many years ago I gave up on the small return of yard sales and switched to the eternal investment of blessing someone. I could write volumes on what I’ve learned about giving things away.