Are You Compelled?

I volunteer with a non-profit organization called Live Love here in Chandler, Arizona. Right now Live Love has me swamped and a bit overwhelmed (no…let’s be honest…WAY overwhelmed)! You see, October 24th will be our third annual Live Love Day and I am fervently praying for a day of success…a day of completing what the Lord has laid before us.



What we do is work with neighborhoods identified as being in need of practical help. We bring volunteers together from local businesses and Churches who work side-by-side with residents to restore beauty and dignity in the lives of these families. We paint homes, make minor repairs, clean, do landscaping, and try to make connections for the families with organizations who can help them meet their day to day needs. You can check us out at http://www.whatislivelove.com/.


This year we are working in three different neighborhoods and are expecting more than 500 volunteers. This is the first year I am leading my own neighborhood which is why the overwhelmed feeling has set in! You see….I’ve had this ongoing prayer for quite some time now. It’s a prayer that many people have…two of my favorite songs are even written about it, so folks, I know I am NOT alone in this prayer!


My prayer has been that God open my eyes to what He sees, to break my heart for the very things that break His heart, and then to fill me with the wisdom to complete His Work in the way He wants it completed.


Can I tell you how LOUDLY HE HAS RESPONDED? First, He allows me the blessing of being able to work in the very neighborhood from which I taught second graders prior to staying home with my boys. Second, because all but two of my families speak only Spanish, I have been the one to sit on their front porch, their kitchen table, or their living room sofa and talk for literally hours. In those hours of conversation God answered my prayer; for right there one afternoon, I truly felt my heart break in a way that only God could break it. It ached to the core for the desperation, the sadness, and the faces that were simply void of hope. These were people with stories of grief and misfortune. I couldn’t believe that right here in a very strong and thriving city like Chandler, Arizona, would there be people living in the conditions I witnessed. Because I taught here years before, I knew it wasn’t good, but now….now things were worse. Our failing economy was so evident and told such a tragic story…


Now? Now I ask you to pray with me that the Lord continues to answer me because I want to do His Work with excellence. I want… and so desperately need to be filled with His wisdom to guide a team of leaders and volunteers that will truly be His hands and feet. I pray for the whole day to reflect the love of a Father who never gives up and Who can restore the hope…restore the joy….and make a new story.


In Church (The Grove Bible Church in Gilbert, AZ www.thegrovebiblechurch.com/)yesterday we had a guest speaker, Tim Davis who is the President of E.L.I.C. The Grove is having a Serve the World Week and Tim opened the week with a moving message about caring enough and being “Compelled by our God of Boundless Mercy”…compelled enough to do what the Lord is asking? To make a difference?


Think about it…hold it still in your mind for a moment and then take the chance to let it run through your heart…are you compelled?


Here is a You Tube video that may help compel you…pay close attention to the lyrics. I’ll post them next time!

Moments

God uses even the simplest of moments to change the course of our day. That simplest of moments for me was the other morning…it was one of those chaotic kinds of mornings that could only be classified as “challenging”. Everything started out as normal, but for some reason my boys just couldn’t get the ball rolling. You know the kind of day I’m talking about. One child doesn’t want to wake up and the other doesn’t want to brush his teeth. Then the food isn’t what either child was hoping for, one shoe from the pair is MIA, and their little ears just simply CANNOT HEAR my directions the first time (or the second…or third). Oh..wait…the lunch is STILL not put in the backpack? Didn’t I just hand it to them? How did it end up in the hallway floor?

And….and then a problem I never quite thought I would have. Are you ready? My oldest son, Zachary, had been very engrossed in his Bible lately and that particular moment? Well, during that particular moment at approximately 8:10 am (when we MUST leave the house at no later than 8:13) he just WOULDN’T STOP READING HIS BIBLE! What do I do with THAT one?!

Now, honestly, it was truly an answer to prayer. I have ALWAYS prayed for my children to be filled with a hunger for God’s Word, but that morning? Well, that morning, I was so frustrated and in such a hurry that out of my mouth came my very stern and somewhat irritated words “Put that Bible away NOW!” Can you just hear it? Well, God heard it and took swift action! I hadn’t even gotten the last word out and He stopped me dead in my tracks! He instantaneously made me realize what I had just done!!!

I backtracked as quickly as I could and getting down to eye level with my little 7-year-old told him that it makes my heart SO incredibly happy to see him so deep into God’s Word and that I knew that God had the BIGGEST SMILE on His face right that moment! I then took a deep breath and in the sweetest voice I could muster (actually a little high pitched in my nervousness about the fact that Zach would be tardy if we didn’t get out the door NOW) I begged….”But could we P-L-E-A-S-E get in the car super super quickly so that we can get you to school on time!!?” And without skipping a beat my sweet Zach gave me his handsome smile, a big hug, and got up and ran to the car.

After I finished my morning drop-offs of Zach at school and then Landon at preschool, I headed to my Mom’s In Touch prayer meeting. For those of you who do not know what Mom’s In Touch is, it is an absolutely wonderful international organization that helps “impact children and schools worldwide for Christ by gathering mothers to pray.” Their vision is to see that “every school in the world be covered with prayer.” Our schools, which include our teachers and our children, need to be lifted up in prayer and support! Teaching is a very tough job that takes a huge amount of time, tons and tons of energy, and an incredibly big heart. We entrust our children into the hands of our educators and to me it therefore seems absolutely essential to pray for them and our children while they are away from us and out of our immediate care. You can check them out at www.momsintouch.org.

Anyway….at my meeting, after sharing my funny story from the morning, the wonderful women there prayed prayers of thanksgiving for my little Zach’s hunger for God’s Word and they also prayed for my younger son (who has been quite a challenge as of late) to hear God’s Word and develop a personal connection to Him. The prayers were beautiful and so perfect for what had been happening in our lives. They truly were prayers led by the Spirit and when I left that meeting I was filled with an awesome sense of peace.

My day continued as I rushed about to my Live Love meeting (I’ll tell you about Live Love in another post), to pick up Landon from preschool, and to a bunch of other errands before I headed back to pick up Zach from school. The day had been busy and I had already stopped thinking about the events from the morning, but the very second Zachary jumped into the car he pulled out his Bible and started sharing! How cute is he and how thankful I was to the Lord that He guided me toward sensitivity in the morning so that I hadn’t stomped out Zach’s passion!

So, immediately Zachary starts reading from the book of Romans which he tells me he thinks is his favorite book in the Bible because it “Just has so much good stuff to say to us, Mom!” He read
Romans 12: 9-13 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give our brothers and sisters more honor than you want for yourselves. Do not be lazy but work hard. Serve the Lord with all your heart. Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes. Pray at all times. Share with God’s people who need help. Bring strangers in need into your homes.

As my sweet and definitely spunky little Landon hears the line about joy he pipes right in…”Whoo-hoo-hoo, Mommy!!! That must be God talking to ME!!!! That is MY Word from God!!! He wants me to be having lots of joy and not be angry and whining so much!!”

Can I get an “Amen”? My Heavenly Father planted a seed in Zachary’s heart and when I almost ruined it with my impatience and focus on our schedule; He stepped in and helped me fix my ways. Then He took the work He was doing in Zachary to answer our prayers from that morning for Landon. We prayed that Landon would hear God’s Word and connect that Word to his own life…that Landon’s relationship with Christ would begin to grow and that his behavior would be reflected in it. And He did it!! God opened the eyes of a wee little 4-year-old and helped him to see how He speaks to us about our lives through the reading of scripture…the reading of His Word. He took a simple moment and made it so important…He changed the course of life in one moment…the life of two little boys and one mom!

Children are a gift from the Lord;they are a reward from him. - Psalm 127:3