Last Saturday I had the opportunity to serve in Atlanta through a disaster relief organization (you can read more about it here). A group of 112 from my church made the journey early Saturday morning to assist in the post flood clean-up. The announcement of the trip was simply made online through my pastor's blog and amazingly enough, we still had 112 people show up--that's huge to not even be announced during a church service! I don't really read the blog too often so when I came across it last Tuesday, I knew I was being called to serve. To be honest, when I felt the call to go I thought, "ehhh, I kinda want to sleep in late on Saturday...I need to study...I've got tickets to the Clemson game...". However, doing these things instead just didn't sit well with me. So, I signed up...just like that. I felt great about it all week until my alarm went off Saturday morning at 4:45 a.m. I thought, "Really God? Are you sure you want me to get up and do this...I mean, this is my only day to sleep in?" I soon realized that that is pretty dang selfish especially when I've been praying for service opportunities to come my way. Which brings me to this blip--In my mind, I was waiting for some "significant" service opportunity...like it had to be overseas or something in order to be significant. No way! Speaking a kind word to someone is a service opportunity. It's more than about the actual act of service, it's allowing someone to see the Holy Spirit work through you and making our Creator's name famous.
Saturday was so rewarding for me and I'm so glad I did it. Imagine all of your belongings from your house being ruined from rain and mildew; all the way down to the sheet rock. We moved all belongings outside to the road to be picked up by sanitation. I picked up photo albums, clothes, book reports, furniture, and even bibles. It was a sad situation but really awesome to be apart of something bigger than myself; working with an amazing team of believers! My favorite part was God reminding me to keep going. It was really, and I mean REALLY, cold on Saturday. The wind was a chilly one and there were plenty of times when all I wanted to do was go back to the bus, but that little whisper kept saying, "This isn't for your comfort...keep going". Love those whispers, even when it's not what I want to do!
If you ever have the opportunity to serve--do it, even if it's something local or something you think isn't significant enough!
Peace and Love!
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