“Friend,
lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come
to me, and I have nothing to set before him.”
Luke 11:5-6
I went to church in a warehouse today. The powers that be had done their best to
spruce up the place by hanging weather-boarded accent walls and painting bare
rafters, but a few decorations couldn’t hide the fact of concrete floors and
industrial doors. And they didn’t need
to because the sermon fit the setting.
Honest admission #1—I didn’t feel much like church today
because my internal calendar is thrown off by being out of state for
Thanksgiving.
Honest admission #2—I didn’t feel much like church today
because as soon as the service ended I was leaving my girl at college again
with her facing her first finals week.
Honest admission #3—I didn’t feel much like church today
because tomorrow is Monday which means back to busy.
Honest admission #4—I didn’t feel much like church today
because on the early morning trip from south Alabama to north Florida, I said
that for the first time in three years, I dreaded heading to work.
In other words, it was the perfect day for me to go to
church. And God took full advantage of
the opportunity. The sermon was about being
God’s warehouse. Those weren’t exactly
the preacher’s words, but it’s where mine ended up. The message was on the parable Jesus told about
the man who asks a friend for bread to pass along to another. I guess you could
call him the “middle man.” Someone with
a need had crossed his path, and since he didn’t have supplies on hand, he
turned to one who did and asked—not so he could hold on to what he got but so
he could pass it on.
A lot like a warehouse.
It’s a place that gets filled up so it can be emptied out and then get
filled back up so the same thing can happen over and over again and again. The walls and roof of a warehouse aren’t
worth much on their own, but when used in the service of one rich and wise enough
to keep it steadily supplied, the needs of many are met by what passes through its
doors.
But it’s not about the warehouse. It’s all about the One who built the
warehouse (ever heard the verse, “We are
his building”??(1 Cor 3:9)) It’s all
about the One who supplies the warehouse (“God shall supply…”Phil 4:19). It’s all about the One who daily sends
family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, strangers, and students to His
warehouse so He can meet the needs of others through the bountiful supplies of
compassion, grace, forgiveness, love, and joy that He has placed in my heart
for me to pass on.
And so I sat at the wonderful church in the warehouse in
downtown Tallahassee—at the same time rebuked, refocused, and renewed—ready to kiss
my girl goodbye and trust her week to the One who holds her finals and her
future, ready to step back into the blessed busyness of being a wife and mom,
and ready to unlock the door of my classroom with a purpose bigger and better
than school curriculum and state standards.
Are you willing to be a warehouse? It won’t be easy, but it will be effective. It won’t be popular, but it will be a privilege. It won’t be glamorous, but it will be
good.
And the God who saves, strengthens, and supplies will
always be worth it.
