Love Your Neighbor

The "Love Your Neighbor" Yard Sale was planted as a seed back in February on the way home from my daughter's weekend birthday getaway.  Sitting in the passenger's seat completing the "Possessions" chapter in Jen Hatmaker's bible study 7: The Experiment, I hear the Holy Spirit whisper the idea.  Because I am impulsive and like to act before I have time to think things through and change my mind, I call my friend Natalie as soon as we get home and talk excitedly about the plan to host a church-wide yard sale for Matthew 28, a mission run by one of the members of our church.  When I pause for air, Natalie agrees it is a good idea, which is all the confirmation I need.  From that moment, the "Love Your Neighbor" Yard Sale goes from a tiny seed to a sapling, awaiting the approval of our Sunday school class and eventually, my church's Session.

The next Sunday Natalie and I present the idea to our Sunday school class, which after years of being called the young adults realized as a group of late-20s to early-40ers needed a more...um...fitting....perhaps honest title and chose Seekers.  The Seekers know me as well as anyone and still love me; I have dragged them, most likely unwittingly, along with me on the 7 journey.  When after hearing me excitedly flub through the idea of our class hosting and organizing a large-scale yard sale, no one breaks out into hysterical laughter or asks me to leave and never come back, I take that to mean everyone is on board and seek permission to make it happen.

While I realize I am currently in month seven of a six-week-long bible study, I have resigned myself to the reality that God is taking me through this slowly because a) I am stubborn and b) I learn lessons slowly.  In Matthew 6:19, Jesus admonishes not to store up for ourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy but to instead store up treasures in heaven.  I believe we often hear this verse, and those of us who consider ourselves to be low on the wealth scale, assume that we're doing a pretty decent job of keeping our possessions light, when in reality, we're storing treasure on earth left and right and not even realizing it.  I mean the producers of Hoarders aren't calling, are they?  About ten years ago, my in-laws introduced me to yard sales.  I had never had any experience with selling my used treasures for money, but once I learned the ropes, I was hooked on the idea.  My husband and I often have a yard sale twice a year in our own driveway and consider ourselves to be semi-experts on the art of garage selling.  See, I told you I had no issues whatsoever with that possessions thing.

I had never really considered the fact that we have enough junk, I mean, treasure, to have a yard sale twice a year to be a problem.  I know, really?  Even before God hit me between the eyes with 7, I had begun to feel a twinge of guilt about selling my used items, many which had not even really been "used" and pocketing the cash to go out and purchase more possessions.  I couldn't quite put my finger on the rising feelings of discontent, but I knew inherently something wasn't right.  Now, I see it was the Holy Spirit preparing me for 7 and the "Love Your Neighbor" Yard Sale.  Having read Hatmaker's book since my last yard sale, I knew it was the ideal opportunity to turn a unique, albeit bizarre, gift into something that could glorify God.

This past Saturday, four months after Natalie and I excitedly dreamed about the possibilities of sponsoring such a huge undertaking, the Seekers hosted our yard sale.  As always, God exceeded our expectations and allowed us to raise $1,550 for two worthy causes, First Light Women and Children's Shelter of Birmingham and Matthew 28, which runs an orphanage in Haiti.  Beyond the excitement of the day, I found God using this opportunity to teach me more about Him and about service.

You are never to young to serve, and there is no act too small to be considered service.  Because most of the Seekers have children under the age of seven, we often try to include our children in our activities.  We are charged with teaching our children about Jesus and how to live the gospel.  My daughter spent hours helping price and organize items and when she wasn't helping us go through bags of clothing and boxes of ornaments, she worked diligently on weaving pot holders to sell at the lemonade stand.  The highlight of the day for many shoppers was having one of our children offer them a glass of cold lemonade or a fresh baked brownie.  Small acts of sincere kindness brought delight to a community of shoppers.  Plus, each child who participated in this yard sale learned how to take the lessons they learn each Sunday in church and put them to work in the real world.  Jesus's hands and feet come in all ages and sizes.

Serving Jesus isn't glamorous or convenient, but it delivers blessings beyond imagination.  Obedience to Christ requires service, period, end of story.  When Jesus discusses the last days in Matthew 25, he says he will gather all the people of the nations and separate them based on what?  How many laws they obeyed?  How often they attended church?  How many bible verses they memorized?  No, "Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me..Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me."  Service matters to Jesus.  He has a heart for the orphaned, the poor, the widowed, the least of these, and we should, too.  There will probably never be an ideal time to serve; there will not be an easy time to serve; service will never fit neatly into our daily schedule, but Jesus didn't promise following Him would be easy.  He uses language like "take up your cross."  I don't imagine that too be an easy, posh life.  While he promises that His yoke is light, I believe it is because He will help us carry it.  So take heart, that while Christ commands we obey despite the fact that we will see trouble in this world, He also promises that he has overcome the world.  He empowers us with what we need to obey Him.  If He's called us to serve, He will equip us to serve.

Organizing and manning a yard sale was no easy task for any of us involved.  It was downright exhausting.  A yard sale requires days of pricing, sorting, organizing, and setting up, but, it is also fun, challenging, and rewarding.  The blessings received from knowing that God used our small Sunday school class to in turn bless the forgotten homeless women of Birmingham and the destitute orphans of Haiti is beyond words.  At the least, it was an inconvenience; at most it was an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world.  What an opportunity that God chooses us, broken jars of clay, to display His mighty work.  Shouldn't we be falling at His feet for an opportunity such as that?

Service is an opportunity to witness the unique gifts of each member of the body of Christ in action.  In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul outlines in great detail how the body of Christ is made of up many parts, members with individual gifts working as one body to glorify God.  "All these [gifts] are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its parts form one body, so it is with Christ......but in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be...Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you has a part of it."  Each of our unique gifts adds value to the church and the church can't function smoothly without those gifts.  This came to life in a new way Saturday.  The garage sale rush began about thirty minutes before we were scheduled to open, and my English teacher/writing gift ended up exactly where it should have....at the checkout counter, where I found myself so distraught and flustered that if someone purchased something for $2.75 and gave me $3.00, I entered it into the calculator to make sure I gave correct change.  Don't judge; it's not my gift.  When my accountant friend Heather arrived with her cool accountant calculator and math skills, it took all my power not to jump into her arms with joy.  Each of the Seekers and other church members who stopped by to help is blessed with many gifts.  Some of us are organizers, some are salesmen, some are public relations experts, some have excellent people skills, some make excellent directors, and others are great followers.  Our dear member Patti showed up eager to help and used her truck to haul and deliver furniture.  Non-Seeker members Betsy, Pat, Janet and Al volunteered their Thursday morning and Friday afternoon to help an overwhelmed mom sort, price, and set up.  Each of our gifts was required to make this yard sale work.  It really was a beautiful reenactment of Paul's illustration in 1 Corinthians.

Each stop on this 7 journey has challenged me in ways I never expected.  For "Possessions" I was expecting to discover new ways to loosen my grip on the things I own and try and figure out what owned me.  Instead, God chose to show me "how beautiful are the hands and feet of those who bring good news?" (Romans 10:15).  He gave me a new appreciation for the individual gifts of the body of Christ and how each one works together to serve.  He also gave me a vision of the church's potential to love and to minister to a broken, hurting world.  He allowed me a glimpse of just how beautiful and radiant the bride of Christ can be when she sets aside her own agenda and differences and works together to glorify God.