Article

This is an article I am working on for one of my Guild lessons. It still needs some editing and tweaking. Just figured the more I get "out there," the better.

As a young newlywed working full time, I was approached by a woman at church to bring a meal to someone who was ill. I smugly refused, stating that I worked full time and didn’t have the time. Let those who don’t work full time do this duty, I thought. I remember the sad look the other woman gave me as she turned away. I stuffed down the conviction, and excused myself that she was judging me.

I continued my self-absorbed life for another year or so before the Lord got my attention again, in a much more dramatic and personal way. By this time I was pregnant for the first time. Life was proceeding according to plan; my husband and I were working and planning for the arrival of our baby. About two months before my due date, I began to leak amniotic fluid. I called my doctor who sent me to the birth center to be checked to verify the leakage. The doctor put me on a medication to prevent premature labor and ordered bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy.

While a few days of lounging sounded heavenly when I had been working full time, the days now stretched on endlessly. My husband was working long hours in construction, coming home many nights too tired to do more than shower, eat, and hit the sack. The house was dirty. Dinners consisted of whatever fast food my husband picked up on the way home. The long weeks stretched before us, lonely and overwhelming.

At the end of the first week of my internment I received a surprising call. We had just begun attending a small new church. In fact I had attended only once, but knew two or three families there. The friend said that the ladies of the church knew I was on bed rest, that my husband was working long hours, and they wanted to bring us meals. Not just for a few days, but until I was released to be up again.

I was incredulous. Why would these ladies, some of whom I hadn’t even met, want to bring us meals? As meal after meal arrived, night after night, I was humbled again and again. These ladies brought us meals five nights a week for seven weeks.

Knock, knock. “Hi I’m Julie,” “I’m Carol,” “I’m Lauri.” Strangers at my door, coming to serve me. When a lady named Kim came one night, I began to question her about why she was bringing us meals. She was single, worked full time as a nurse, was involved in music. Her response floored me because she gave no thought to herself, “Because you have a need.”

After she left, her answer echoed in my heart over and over. All of these women gave not out of their convenience, but because of our need. I cried that night as I repented of my own selfishness. I had only looked at what I could do when it had been convenient for me. I realized that night the Lord wanted me to give when He called because of the need, not when it fit my timetable or what I felt comfortable or even adequate to do.

Now, twenty years later, I am ashamed of how selfish I was, and can still be at times. But the Lord has graciously showed me the joy in serving, the gift I receive when I am willing to serve. This is true love and I believe it is what the Lord commanded us when He said to lay down our lives for one another.

For over a year now the Lord has shown me this first hand. I have taken meals to a friend who has multiple sclerosis and whose husband has recently gone through radiation treatment. Both of them have been at a place that even a simple meal was more than they were capable of managing. But the need was waiting to be met. Is it convenient? No. Is it always easy? No. But there is great need all around each of us and we don’t always know where our gifts of service will have the greatest impact in the hearts around us. Sometimes it’s as simple as taking someone a meal.

When I look back at how far the Lord has brought me. Wow. I'm sometimes amazed that anyone even liked me back then. And I wonder what "dirt" do I still have clinging to me today? In another 20 years, what will I look back on in awe of His redemption? Praise the Lord, He has promised to complete the work He has begun in all of us.