Archive for February 2009
Encounter (Sunday class) week 1.
One of our assignments this week for class was to write about something where we see God working in our life.
I had a really interesting experience at Hobby Lobby. I really don’t like going there, because there are never enough checkers and if I get too overheated sometimes I feel like I’m going to pass out while waiting in line. Well, they opened a new line, and I got behind a woman with a few things, and she turned and said to me “You only have two things, please go in front of me!”
I was really grateful to her for it– she saved me two or three minutes at least. I think that a lot of times we’re concerned about how to make that connection with another person, and we don’t think about the easy ways to do so– to help another person out, even in a small way. Letting me go first cost her a little bit of time and nothing more. How many more things could we do for one another in the spirit of patience and generosity?
I got a new book last night called Take This Bread by Sara Miles; it talks a lot about setting up a food pantry in a poor neighborhood church in San Francisco. One of the things that stood out to me was an explanation of why a lot of people volunteered to help set up and hand out food– because they, like everyone else, loved to give things away and be thanked, but being poor they very rarely got the chance.
It really made me think about whether giving or receiving is the better blessing…
