Doers

A couple a sleeps ago, the night of October 25^th, 3013. I dreamed a dream unlike any other, a dream that had the potential to change my life. J. Wilson once said “A dreamer will not stop having that dream until it has been fulfilled.” What a valid statement. Y’all I knew the moment I met that family of 12 with close to nothing in their possession in the village of Magdalena that it was no average day in Guatemala. Everyday since has been a dream, the same dream, just sweeter and sweeter each day. Let me give you another one of my favorite quotes while I am at it. “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”- Sarah Ban Breathnach. Now let’s stop right there for a second. I think it’s possible to take a worldly approach on that quote but I choose to go in another direction with it. I know it FULL well that the Lord had EVERYTHING to do with that dream he gave me. As a Christian, it was my responsibility to first listen (so hard for me). Secondly, to commit to be a doer. Thirdly, accept that I could not do it without Him. We are called to be doers of the Word in James 1:22. If it is from the Lord, I can promise you right now, He wants you to be a doer of whatever He asks. I will speak from my experience since October 25^th that in order to be a doer, you have to daily submit yourself to Him. Let’s get one thing straight, there have been PLENTY of days that I have forgotten that or simply chosen otherwise. I could write a novel on the days when the Lord has stretched me so far which has required me to give Him more of me. That is ALL He wants from you, dreamers.

On November 11^th, 2013 (another dreamy day), after McKenzie (my sister) pushed me to DO, I shared the idea of Pur[SHOE]ing Joy with the world. OH GLORIOUS DAY. If you go back to that post, you’ll find a link to one of my jams, Oceans by Hillsong. As if the song isn’t good enough, at the beginning of the video, Joel Houston wisdom blows my mind. I typed: “God is always calling us further and deeper. Often, our prayer, our confession is ‘God I want you to take me deeper. I want to know more of you. I want to do more for you.’ We always want to do more for God like that is what He is after. God is not looking for us to do more for Him. He is actually just looking for more of us, more of our heart. And when He gets more of us, our attention, our affection, our heart, our trust, He is able to do more through us.” It gets me every time, y’all.

Many months, challenges, shoe drives, work, meetings, valleys, mountaintops, hard conversations, lessons learned, tears, encouraging words later, Jesus has more of me than He ever has. And yesterday, May 8^th, He put on a show through the Pur[SHOE]ing Joy team . We gave out 300 pairs of shoes. Here is the cool part, He is not finished with us. He wants more of us. In relation to J. Wilson’s words, yesterday was just another day of the same dream, we aren’t done dreaming our dream and doing our do, we know it is not fulfilled yet. He isn’t done with Pur[SHOE]ing Joy. We are now a non-profit and have no idea when He will decide that ‘it is fulfilled” but we are PUMPED. The Sole Train is going back to Santa Maria de Jesus on May 29^th but this time, WITH OUR FIRST OFFICIAL TEAM. Yepp. that’s right. Five young and hip couples are taking a week away from their big time jobs to come to Guatemala to Pur[SHOE] Joy. 

Not that I can really put yesterday into great enough words, I will try. Hmm lets see, THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE SO FAR. I felt like I met more of Jesus yesterday. It was wild. Of course, there was no sleep the night before. It monsooned outside at 4AM for about 2 hours and Satan was doing everything possible to get inside my head, telling me we were going to run out of shoes, and that the weather was going to ruin everything, we weren’t going to have enough volunteers etc. BUT get this, HOW BIG IS GOD>>>>>

So Nov. 11^th, y’all were reminded of what I learned that day, He doesn’t want my service, He just wants more of ME. Well yesterday morning, my devo read: “DON’T SERVE GOD. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him. (2 Chron. 16:9) God is not looking for assistants in the world. The Gospel is not a help wanted ad. Neither is the call to Christian service. God is not looking for people to work for Him.” I went on to read about how He rebuked Israel for bringing him so many sacrifices in Psalm 50:9-12. Everything in the world already belongs to him. He doesn’t need us to give him those things. Kept reading on, “BUT there is something that you can give him that will not belittle him to the status of beneficiary. Give Him more of you and your anxieties.” 1 Peter 5:7 is a command. He wants anything from us that shows our dependence and his all-sufficiency. Patients do not serve their physicians, do they? They just trust them. The Sermon on the Mount is our Doctor’s medical advice, not our Employer’s job description.  Let that soak in for a second. Workmen get no gifts. They get their due. God is the workman. He was the workman yesterday. He gets all the Glory of being the benefactor of Grace, not the beneficiary of service.

We planned as best as we knew how but of course, forgot things, important things. And guess what, He showed up and put on, y’all. As soon as I finished reading the above, Satan lost what little hope He had in getting a hold of me. A translator and volunteers came out of nowhere. The rain stopped. The kids showed up in multitudes. We have plenty of shoes left over. Someone provided lunch for us. Joy never left the room that day and when the day was done, the joy went out with every single child, volunteer, Ty and myself. I cannot get over it. We were able to give shoes to a child that had an infection on her big toe that had already eaten away half of it. Oh and did I mention that at the end, every. single. child. that had received shoes gave every. single. one. of us a hug? Yep!

This is ALL a dream and I never want it to end. I am in awe that I serve a God that is capable of making a dream, a reality. I am in awe that I am loved enough by a God who gave me the vision of Pur[SHOE]ing Joy.

God does not want our service. He just wants US. When we die to self, we then begin to seek a God that is bigger than self. Once we recognize who He is, we make ourselves available to Him. In His Word, we find the freedom to not only be dreamers of His plan, but doers too. As doer’s of His plan, He will have MORE of US than He ever has.

SO DO ON, DREAMER. It will change your life. It changed mine. Praying that He reveals your WILDEST DREAM that you didn’t even know was dreamable. It will stretch you, but I promise, with Him, it is DOABLE. 

Joyful dreams,

-SA