Earlier in the week I rode with my grandmother to Chattanooga to go see her new orthopedic doctor. She’d been having health issues for the past couple of months and didn’t want to travel down there alone. So I tagged along, it also helped that she offered to take me out somewhere nice to get lunch. We ate at PF Changs, so of course after the meal we were brought fortune cookies. When I cracked my cookie open and read the fortune inside my jaw hit the floor. It read, “Your charitable efforts will be worthwhile.”
Okay, before I go any further, I don’t ever expect any fortune cookie fortunes to amount to much more than a good laugh, but this one threw me for a loop. I mean…. seriously? How could PF Chang’s know I was planning on spending a year abroad doing missions work? Okay okay, they didn’t, but still the irony of the moment hits me every time I think about it, mostly because I had a conversation on the same topic right before I applied for the Race.
I was eating lunch with a good friend and mentor on the day I applied. I had planned on asking for some of his info to fill out a recommendation for me, but what ended up happening was a time of learning and gleaning from a man who has been on twenty-one missions trips in a little over a decade. I was talking to him about my plans and dreams, and how I felt that I needed to put God first before my own plans and give a year of my time and service before pursuing my career as a writer. During the conversation I made a comment about feeling like I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t write good enough to try to submit my work to an agent, let alone a big name New York publisher.
My mentor looked at me and said a phrase that makes my hair stand on end every time I hear it. “These are not my words, but I feel like I am supposed to tell you this.” He went on to talk about the apostles. They were common men of their time, yet Jesus called them to Him. They spent three years around Jesus, and when Jesus finally left and the Holy Spirit was poured out to them, the apostles astounded the scholars and teachers of their time. “You are taking this year to not only do missions work, but to submerse yourself in God’s presence. When you give of your time and of yourself completely, that time with God changes you and blesses you. If you put this year before your plans, if you put God first before all of your plans, He will bless you and make everything else fall into place.”
I thought back on that conversation as I looked at that fortune cookie paper, and I believe it is true. God does pour out His blessings on those who follow His call to ministry, even if it is just for a year. It astounds me that God would be so loving and generous with His blessings, yet I don’t think that that particular blessing is solely mine to claim. Yes, there were some more personal details that I left out, but I think that the overall blessing could be anyone’s if they are willing to dedicate their time and service to God.
You don’t have to travel the globe as a vagabond minister to receive God’s blessings. All He asks is for obedience.
