what has God done for me?

a few weeks ago i was privilaged enough to lead a group of teens on a mission trip to Northwest Ohio for a week of Christ-like service. you may be asking - 'why go on a mission trip to Sandusky, Ohio?' why not go to New Orleans or the Congo or to some inner city or appalatian community? i don't know - but i guess now in hindsight i could say that i know for certain that we were sent there for a reason.

I Will Go Where You Send Me.

We worked in a soup kitchen for the week (among other things). it was at this place where God spoke to me - or maybe it would be better to say that God showed me things... words weren't necessary. i got the message. the message was love. the message was food. the message was hope. the message was 'what you do to the least of these, you do to me.'

not once during the week, while working there was a voiced raised in disagreement. not once was there a sense of disunity. it was as if all evil was rebuked and disposed of outside the front door on the warm Sandusky concrete.

i think i learned what it means to be blessed by God... i think i learned what it means to have God at the center of everything...

i had a chance to talk to Pastor Lonnie - the man who founded the Victory Soup Kitchen. His church was meeting in a YMCA for a number of years... before building a church facilitY, they purchased a house and renovated it - turning it in to the soup kitchen. amid resistence - they perservered. early on, while sitting with a homeless man who was being fed @ the soup kitchen, Pastor Lonnie was nearly stumped by a question posed to him by the hard-pressed man who looked him straight in the eye. "What has God ever done for me?" the man asked Pastor. While searching for the right words and not finding them, Pastor Lonnie shared with me that before his feeble attempts to formulate a response would come to fruition 7 words came out of his mouth - as if the Holy Spirit had spoke them: "He's feeding you this meal. isn't he?"

The Lord God takes care of his creation... of his people. The birds of the air need not worry about tomorrow.

God provides. Abide in him.

My perspective has now changed a bit. I can only hope that i will begin to see all the ways God has provided for my needs... I strive to give Him all the glory... i strive to let my pride fall down daily.

And yet as i write this i am reminded that the Lord has placed within me something deep...deeper than this revelation... something that i do not yet comprehend... but i know it is in me... and i know it is from Him...

patience...



Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
PSALM 34