“Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone.”
-Ann Voskamp
I read those words yesterday and jumped up yelling YES!
Yes!
That is what I want…THAT is what I want to teach my children…THAT is what pleases God.
That sentence. So full and rich. So much packed into so few words.
It stuck with me all day. All day I mulled it and processed and read it again and again.
The page dog eared, words lined and margins starred.
Spend the whole…not just a little here and there…not just every once in a while…but the WHOLE…of your
ONE.
You just get one shot kid.
One shot.
One life.
No re-do’s. No take overs. No second chances.
Wild…crazy, hectic, overwhelming and sometimes downright wearing…
leaving you in a puddle of your own tears, at the end of your rope…
bad days, scary days, long days.
and beautiful…
joys and love and blessing abounding in ways you never thought possible…
seeing thanks and unbelievable sweetness in every crevice and corner and pocket of your life…
INVESTING!!!
Investing, yes!
Of our resources, our time, our money, our prayers, our hearts…
Investing is hard work.
It’s intentional.
Investing isn’t done lightly.
With it requires much care and thought.
in MANY lives…
not just a few folks you come across…those lives will look different through the years…
your classmates, and then your family, your children, your neighbors, families on the other side of the world…it will change and ebb and flow and look completely different through the years…
but many LIVES…
not just people, that guy mumbling to himself, that lady on the street corner in rags…
not simply writing a check, or haphazardly scrawling a note…
but actual limbs and breaths and souls, in all their hurt and pain and ugliness…
AND GOD WILL SIMPLY NOT BE OUTDONE.
Because when that investing is done for His glory…to spread His name…to shine His light…
He will make your insignificant investment a thing of beauty.
He will be made more.
He will one up you.
Every. Single. Time.
You think you’re doing a great thing?
God trumps you.
He will make much of your service.
He is the quiet orchestrator that coordinates and connects and takes your small investment…and multiplies it by thousands.
God doesn’t need our help.
No more than I need my son’s “help” baking cookies.
But the joy it brings my boy to sit on the counter amid the flour, butter and vanilla…
to mix and pour and spill and mess and drop and poke sticky fingers…
And in the same way, I’m sure that I make a mess through my supposed “helping” too.
But God lets me.
He includes me.
Not because He needs me…but because He knows that it will bring me joy.
It will teach me and strengthen me and sharpen me.
Ann’s next sentence says :
“God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but of the one we yearn for: Joy in Him.”
This is my desire.
More than the ABC’s and the 123’s…clearing your plate at dinner…please and thank you…
I desire my children to make much of God by making less of themselves….
and the best way to do that is in service.
Making someone else a priority of your time and resources.
Not hoarding it for yourself…but giving it freely.
And the only way that these sweet faces will learn that is by seeing it done.
I have a lot of work to do.
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Beautiful. :-)
well said my friend. and those babes of yours… swoon. every last one of ’em! i am busy investing… loving on my high school friends. pouring Living Water into their parched souls. Loving well, as the King has shown. failing miserably on every level, but oh, the journey. it’s spectacular.
Thank you!
i could just see you jumping up with that beautiful smile taking over your face! thanks for sharing. it was beautiful.
This post is so encouraging! I love thinking about it that way – God is so good!
lovely post! thank you for the very powerful reminder. my heart swells in unison with the words you have shared. amen. let it be so. yes to all that you said.
thanks for sharing.
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