On my World Race, I’ve been asked by God to give up a lot. I’ve been pushed past what I thought was my limit. I’ve felt like I’d been asked to do the impossible. I thought I had been asked to surrender absolutely everything.
And I was right. I was asked to surrender everything. I was being called to live for God and God alone, giving up any ties I had back home. A brief moment of vulnerability- one of these things was to break up with my long term boyfriend whom I planned to marry. I wasn’t given a reason, certainly he had done nothing wrong, but a very clear task. When asked God why, a voice in my head very clearly quoted Romans 9:20 to me, “Who are you to answer back to God?”.
Ending my long term relationship is just one of the things God asked me to be obedient about, as if serving on a year long mission trip around the world wasn’t obedient enough. This is all to say- I’m no stranger to being asked hard things by God. Its not unusual for Him to throw curveballs my way, and having to learn to swing at them the best I can. With everything I was asked to surrender, I was constantly told by others, “blessing follows obedience”.
This really struck me. I shouldn’t need a blessing after being obedient, because I was blessed before being asked to obey. Jesus died the death I deserved, so if He asks me to do something, I shouldn’t hesitate to do it. Not because I’m promised a blessing after, but because I’ve already been blessed more than I could possibly want. But that’s not the God I serve. I don’t serve a God who tallies up that his blessing equals my obedience. It’s never a one for one system. Instead, I’m promised eternal life, salvation and grace despite all my errors, and am asked just a few things to do to spread his love. So in reality, it isn’t me being obedient always then receiving a blessing after. Instead, it goes more like this- Jesus died, I accepted this salvation, I mess up a lot, I’m given grace, I mess up more, more grace, I’m asked something of myself, I say no, more grace, I’m asked again, I say yes, then abundant blessings flow. Maybe even throw in me saying no a few more times.
This month, I’ve certainly learned a lot about being blessed. This month my team is doing something called Unsung Heroes. We don’t have a host, a place to stay, anyone to talk to, but are tasked with finding new hosts for future teams to stay at. This obviously requires a lot of trust in the Lord, and a lot of listening prayer. We have about 1200 cool connections that are from Jesus himself, and are coming to you in the form of a video blog soon, but this one, is oddly satisfying.
My teammate Allie wanted to dye her hair blonde. I personally think it was to outwardly reflect the light that is so clearly taking place inwardly, but you can ask her that. She found a hair salon in Windhoek to work with her budget and started the process. The woman was playing worship music, and was very interested in our trip. For step two of the process, Allie was offered to be the “model” for the salon as the best hairdresser in all of South Africa came and taught about new products. Blessing 1- this would be completely free. I went back with Allie to keep her company. Settling in for the 3 or 4 hour wait, I pulled out my book and tuned out.
To my surprise, the hairdresser suddenly pulls my pony tail out of my hair, and tells me she’s going to even out my spotty box-died hair as well. Blessing 2- also for free. Blessing 3- I’m given a free cappuccino. She finishes both of our hair, does a marvelous job, and saves us in total about $300-$400 USD. Unbelievable.
We go out to dinner to celebrate our new found beauty (a rare thing on the Race), and Allie has an urge to go to this one restaurant in particular. In case you didn’t know, I have the word “ARISE” tattooed on my right forearm, in reference to Mark 5:41, when Jairus’s daughter is raised from the dead. Something in our waitress tempted her to ask me about it, so I told her. I told her the story of the girl, of people’s disbelief, and the man who raised her back to life. I was careful not to say Jesus’s name, but when I was finishing the story, she asked me if it was a bible story. She knew a story like that could only be from God.
She opened up about how she has been blessed, but finds it hard to be obedient. She was completely vulnerable to complete strangers, all because of a tattoo, a very strategically placed tattoo that would allow me to share the Gospel. We got her contact information and still talk frequently. If you want to join me in prayer for Rebekah, please do.
I tell you this story because it is just a small example of being blessed before being asked to do something. I was given a free blessing, one I didn’t ask for, then given the opportunity to share His love immediately after. Even if that’s a task, it certainly doesn’t feel like one because one of my absolute favorite things is to talk about Jesus’ love for us. So really, it was blessing follows blessing which follows blessing.
This is just one story that spanned maybe 5 hours; wait until you see the video that spans all month. God certainly does provide.
