Cale and Catherine Whittington shared with us how their kids reacted to having a garage sale for our ministry. Not only did they, for the first time ever, get excited about getting rid of some of their toys and personal belongings, they intentionally picked out some of their nicest things so that they could make more money to donate to our ministry. It showed the Whittingtons how an activity aligned with God’s purpose (in Catherine’s words, God gave her the idea to do the garage sale for us rather than just taking stuff to the Salvation Army) made the activity fun and worthwhile. All of their previous experience with garage sales weren’t.
We are preparing to leave for five months on mission and trying to sell our home (please pray it sells soon at its value). As a result we are having a garage sale and generally trying to de-clutter our lives. This isn’t easy for our children and they, too, like the Whittington’s children balked at our request to get stuff ready for sale. But God then gave me this to ask of them: Let’s pick out some of the small animals and such to take with us to the Philippines to give to the orphans we will be ministering to. Immediately, their hearts changed and they grew excited, picking out a number of things (more than we can take initially).
These events help me realize the difference between a life without purpose and a missional lifestyle. When we listen to God’s voice, finding His direction for our lives, and then join ourselves to that mission, it makes life full and complete and doing things that we once considered difficult to do become easy, natural, and exciting. If you are finding life more chore than choice, I would humbly suggest that you ask God why this is so and ask Him how you should be investing the gifts and talents He has given you. As you begin to allow Him to direct your paths, you will begin to see how all your swimming upstream could have been a nice back float down the river with God as your guide.