Valentines, Birthdays, and Lovingkindness

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is a special day, not just because of this lovey Hallmark holiday (he he), but because it is my sister, Sue's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Susie! Love you!

Let me tell you a little about my sister. Sue does church. I don't mean that she goes to church. She does that, too. No, Sue does church. She has fully embraced a ministry serving her people, whom she refers to as her unhoused friends. Saturday mornings you will find her downtown, rain or shine or subzero temperatures, handing out food to her friends. And when she's not there, she's at the mission, loving on her people. And when she's not there, she's serving new moms and their babies at her day job at the hospital.

Sue is on fire for Jesus.

When she jumped into this ministry a few years back, she had no idea how much it would cost her. The answer? A lot. But she will probably tell you that she also had no idea how much it would give her in return.

I am a little jealous. I feel as though, for the first time in a LONG time, I want to get in the game. And yet God has me sitting on the benches.

"C'Mon, Coach! Put me in the game!" I want to shout.

Sometimes it is just plain hard to identify your ministry, to figure out where God is pointing for you to go.

I am going to church, but I am not doing church. Oh, we do fellowship and donuts and coffee. We do hymns and offerings and bible study. But we don't do church. We are not the hands and feet of Jesus. I want to find a church that will let me do this, that will challenge me every day to do this. I don't think I've found it yet.

This week, I've felt a little broken and bruised and battered. Just weary, plain and simple.

But in the midst of it all, God gave me a fresh word.

"Hesed", He whispered to me.

Lovingkindness.

Because it's when I'm tired and just plain hungry for Him that He reminds me of His hesed, His lovingkindness to me.

I think God gave me this fresh word to share it with my sister, too. That is what I want for her this year...to feel God's ever present and eternal hesed for her. And to continue to share that love with others.

Because Love never fails.

{Today's Brew: WPlus9 stamps and dies, PTI white card stock, SU ink and card stock}