Its time to start giving things away. Its never a bad time to give something away, to give away a gift, something that means a lot to you in order that someone else might cherish it in the same way you do. If we continue to wait for the “perfect time” to give things away we never will. There is no perfect time, there simply is just a choice. Are you going to withhold or give?
That was a thought process that raced through my mind the evening of September 13th. I was overwhelmed with a feeling that it was time to give something away, and that something was my key. My key that I have been wearing around my neck for 9 months. That reminded me of how strong I was every time I looked down at the engraved capital letters STRONG on this bronze-ish gold ordinary key. I didn’t want to give it up, I really loved that key! It felt like in a way it became apart of me. I had to remind myself that the reason I got it in the first place was to give it away one day. That I was meant to wear it and discover its meaning for me, let it become apart of me in a deep way, not the key itself but the word strong, and then to give it away once the Lord laid it on my heart to do so.
I knew that evening as I was sitting there on the futon in the prayer room we set up for the women at the community center that it was time. As I sat there with my key in my hand the name of our host Daniela kept popping into my mind. I couldn’t ignore it. I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t ready to give my key away and that surely a better opportunity would come up, and I’d have a stronger urge to give it away, surely a more perfect opportunity would come up later. Then I heard the Lord say clear as day, “Its season of giving things away”. Now, when I say I hear the Lord saying these things to me often I don’t hear an audible voice, its more like these thoughts or specific phrases just come to my mind in a sudden and “loud” way where I know its not just my thoughts making these things up. Its gotta be there Lord saying these things to me because often they’re just a little out of the ordinary to my usual thinking but also so much more amazing than my usual thoughts. Its a cool thing to be able to learn to filter my thoughts from God’s, and its even cooler seeing how often my thoughts come to match his too. Its really all so simple too, which is something I’m continually learning about; the simplicity of just listening to God and trusting that what I hear he trusts me to do. He’s so trusting its wild and awesome and so freeing!
Anyway, I knew from that moment on the futon holding my key that it was a season of giving things away and that started with giving my key to Daniela. She was the second host I ever had to ask us what our stories were, our full life stories, and she shared hers with us too. But its the way she shared and listened to us that showed me how strong she is. She shared shamelessly and listened in a judge-free way, she was NOT ashamed of our stories and she wasn’t ashamed of her own. She continued to remind us of how good she knew God was in the midst of her hardship and how Jesus is going to continually be kind to her and us int he midst of the struggles in all of our lives too. She always turned the talk of hardship into a celebration of God’s character, his goodness and his strong presence in our lives. I can’t remember one time where we talked about the hard stuff where she didn’t speak some sort of praise of how good Jesus still is in the midst of all of that, or despite all of that. This woman is strong. She is the definition of strong I have been discovering for myself all year. She knows how to push into hardship with the hope of Jesus, & I knew that by the way she spoke to us, and of her story. As I shared in a previous blog, I have learned that strong means looking at the junk in our lives and seeking meaning and healing and pressing into it with complete confidence and hope that Jesus has and will redeem it, he will teach us something from it and use it for his glory. Daniela’s story has that written all over it, and so does her life. And I know that giving her my strong key will allow her to pass along her definition of strong to someone else too.
I chose to give my key away, just as I’m praying to continually choose to give away the sweet and powerful things Jesus gives me. Its a season of giving, and I’m not exactly sure what that means but all I know is I don’t want to withhold things from people the Lord presses on my heart to give to. Whether its tangible or not, or its encouragement, or advice, wisdom, love or whatever. I don’t want to withhold anything. Its a season of giving, and I am excited for Jesus to show me how much I too receive when I give the good things he has given me to his people. Its a season of giving, and all I wanna be is all in.
Me explaining to Daniela why I knew she was the one I was meant to give my key to.
A sweet embrace after of course many tears and giving her my key!
Daniela and I!
She looks just right with the word strong around her neck now. 🙂
