Wrecked

After a month of Beyond, I've been wrecked.  The good kind of wrecked.  God is moving.  He is alive and living in the world today.  He's not just living in the world, but He is living in and through me.  Everything I do, everything I read, everything I see reminds me of His grace.  I've been wrecked.
I got to see a campaign from it's conception in committee, through its manifestation in the church, to it's evaluation back in that committee and through testimony of others, and it just screams "God."  Through that whole process, I've learned to trust.
God has aligned so much for me right now that it is impossible to not see His handiwork.  Beyond, my grove, my accountability group, my housing situation, my Disney timeshare, my personal study time.  It all has lined up as if God is saying, "you have not been experiencing the full goodness of living your life for Me.  But trust Me in this."
The other day, I was talking to my daughters about what they did in Sunday School.  They told me that they put money in the offering, to which I said that they didn't have money.  Their response was that the teachers gave it to them.
It reminded me of being 8 years old and staying over my friend's house on Saturday night and going to church on Sunday morning.  I vividly remember getting into the blue Dodge Caravan, on the passenger's side, (back then, there was no sliding door on the driver's side) with my friend and his two little sisters. Their mother gave us all a small amount of change to put in the offering plate in Sunday School.  We would put it all in and never think about that gift again. I remember thinking that it must have just been those parents teaching us to give.  I know I've heard stories of a relative getting that money from his parents and maybe putting some in the offering bag and pocketing most of it, leaving church and walking to Bruster's to spend what he didn't give. I think that method is a better example of how we actually give.  We take what we think we deserve and give a portion to God and spend the rest on ice cream.
As I've been living life this past few months, I've come up with a better analogy. It's the first one.  The one where the mother gives me 2 quarters, to teach me to give and I put all of it in.
When is that 50 cents mine?  When it leaves her hand and drops into mine?  Does she expect me to give all of it in Sunday School.  If that's the case, is it really my money to give, or am I just the delivery method for this mother to give, while teaching me valuable life lessons?
Years ago we had a stewardship campaign, and while I was never (and still am not) a big fan of asking people for money, I did learn things about stewardship.  I did come to learn that none of this is mine.  It is God's and it is my job to take care of it.  The biggest point Carrie and I got from it was that our children are really not ours, but ours to take care of and raise in a manner that glorifies God.
This summer we moved into a bigger house.  With 5 potty trained people living in our house, we decided that the 5 minute wait for the toilet in the morning was too much for us.  I was always uneasy with this decision. My biggest reason for moving was a stupid inconvenience every morning.  But we found a great house in a fantastic neighborhood at the top of our price range.  Before I made my first new mortgage payment, as I was cutting grass in our new, smaller yard I was preparing for our upcoming Grove (small group) study by listening to Crazy Love, by Francis Chan.  One of his stories was how a man sold his house, gave the proceeds to the church and moved in with his dad.  I thought this was more of God telling me I made the wrong decision to buy the house, that was going to be a larger financial burden on us.  As it turns out, I believe it was a quick reminder that everything we have is God's, we are stewards.
Now, and please do not take this as me bragging, or lifting myself up, this is all Jesus, we use our house as a place to serve the Lord.  Our door is open to our church kids to come and hang out.  If they're there at dinnertime, they eat dinner.  If they need a place to sleep, there's a bedroom ready.  Right as we were ready to make that first new mortgage payment, Beyond came up.  Carrie and I came up with an amount of money that we would set aside for gather, give and serve. It was a number that I thought would hurt, not excruciating pain, but we would definitely be set back by.  In fact, God even put on our hearts to give a little bit more.  We haven't felt a thing.  In fact, two days ago, we learned that we were receiving a gift larger than that amount that we gave for Beyond.
Last week I was standing around before a soccer game, because for NCAA tournament games, they make you show up 2 hours before kick-off, and we somehow got talking about claiming our referee income on our taxes.  Most guys claim it, but are able to show little profit by claiming things like mileage, uniform purchases and so forth.  Some of the things that were in the list of deductions were such stretches I would fear them getting audited.  I am not saying they are evading taxes, but it got me thinking about living a life in Christ. In the same way that we ask, "what can we claim we use for refereeing to pay as little tax possible," "what is it that I can claim as being a tool of serving God?  How am I making the most of what I am, in order to experience the fullness of life in Christ?  If someone were to hear I was a follower of Christ, how would they know looking at my groceries, my automobile, where I spend my time?"
I've heard so many stories of God wrecking peoples lives in the last month.  My hope is that He did it, and they payed attention and kept going the direction He put them.  I know that is my challenge as well.
Grace and peace to you.