Give a Pair of Shoes

Why give?
It's incredibly easy.
It's not hard to find an extra five dollars in your budget.
It's only a one time purchase.
You can give as much as you want.
It's doing something outside of yourself.

Small Things Can Make a Big Difference

"So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." -Galatians 6:10 ESV

Here are some small things you can do today:

• Hold the door for someone every chance you get
• Sign-up to receive AMBER Alert text messaging on your cell phone
• Pack and mail your quality used books to a U.S. organization
• Smile at everyone you see today
• Strike up a conversation with someone you don't normally talk to
• Obey speed limit signs. Doing so shows respect for the law, your life, and the lives of others
• Find out how you can volunteer for the holiday season
• Play cards with someone in the nursing home, even if they aren't related to you
  
• Give two pairs of shoes

I Am Nothing Challenge

There are so many causes around the world and throughout America. Too often I sit back and do nothing because I feel that I am too small to make a difference. I feel that nothing that I do will really matter. I don't really feel that my voice will be heard. I don't really feel that my $5 will help anyone. I don't really feel that there is anything I can do or say to make a real impact or difference in the world.

Then I realized something.

I am totally right. I am nothing. I am nothing without God.

I can't make a difference. God can. Here's the thing... here's the blockade that I was still hanging out in front of being all like, "This is fun." I was standing still, afraid to move.

I challenge you to get up.

I challenge you to stop limiting God. I challenge you to try to do something big and great and if you fail, that's alright. However, if you succeed or have any sort of success, know that it is only because of God and without Him, you are nothing.

I challenge you to do something great. I challenge you to be the change you want to see. I challenge you to make a difference. I challenge you to start small or start big, but just to start something.

I challenge you to embrace your nothingness. I challenge you to say, "I am nothing. God is everything." I challenge you to embrace God's power and give Him full control.

So, while we are nothing, God can be everything.

This Reminds Me, IHOP Opened in Aberdeen

Guy eating pancakes: Everything's funny in retrospect, like the time I got that screwdriver stuck in my eye.

[source, warning: not everything is appropriate]

I can relate. Well, sort of. (In the sense that I really can't relate at all. But ultimately everything's funny in retrospect is a universal truth.)

I Should Just Close My Mouth

I suppose I haven't post in a while, which means, I have some catching up to do. For instance, my youth group ended up not being able to go to Watertown, because the weather would have been too bad and it was decided that it was just safer not to risk the roads not being good. So, that does indeed mean that I have a sermon burning a hole in my pocket. Or rather, my purse, but I haven't taken it out of my purse yet, but you get the idea. Jeremy says he will make sure I preach it sometime soon. Quite honestly, I was looking forward to preaching again just to see if I have totally lost my touch. You see, the last sermon I preached in my home church didn't go so well. (Good thing my mother doesn't read this, or else she'd be like, "Andra, don't say that!") It sort of resembled a train wreck with someone laughing through it the entire time. But anyway, I wanted to see if I somehow took a wrong turn in the "road of life" and it somehow isn't my calling.

When I look back, I really only see all the times that I have totally failed after I opened my mouth. For instance, the End of the School Year Bash my freshman year, when for some reason I thought that everyone was expecting me to speak, but I didn't have anything prepared, so I just got up there and rambled on for way too long. All the while people just looked and tried to pay attention, but I was really just going on for far too long. And then, I hadn't turned my cell phone off, so it went off while I was going on for too long.

Then there was one time I preached in church and it went for way too short. I probably set the record for quickest a church service has ever gotten out. You know you haven't spoken for long enough when afterward people tell you, "At least I didn't fall asleep," meaning that I didn't give them enough time to fall asleep.

Then there was the NYC presentation that Krista and I gave after we got back. The lesson I learned from that is even though you say stupid things, don't tell your entire church that you ever said, "I looked at the pamphlet and it said 50 states were represented and I said, 'Which ones are missing?'" That's not something you say when you have a mike in a church.

There are many times where I have not done a good job speaking. That's really my point here.

Nursing Home Stories and Watertown

I should be going to bed. In fact, I have no idea why I am even awake. Maybe I am hoping school will be canceled and then I will get a break and can at least take a nap. I don't really want school to be canceled, but at any rate, I should be going to bed right now.

And yet, here I am. You see, my youth group is putting on a service in Watertown on Saturday. I am really hoping that it turns out to be more organized than we were in Africa. (Let's overlook that I got to church to practice late on Wednesday so I ended up not practicing with them.) I am hoping that is God moving and that even though, I don't really think anyone has a clue what we will be doing, that we are still able to stir up that church and get them excited to get their youth ministries fired up. That might be a lot to ask coming from my group though (no offense). Of course, I am just as much to blame, considering I have no ideas for a sermon. So, obviously, I haven't started writing it yet. So, hopefully things fall into place. Hopefully things are driven by God and not us. Because if it were just us, we would crash and burn. For sure.

At the nursing home, one resident asked me to take care of her because she loves me. And this resident doesn't always seem to have it all together (for example, every day I set out a plate to place the pitcher on and she asks if she can have a plate to or why do they only get one plate), she is nice to me and for some odd reason, she seems to like me (according to her, she loves me). Yes, she is the one I forced to take a toothpick. I am finding that most of my stories are about the nursing home.

The Day After "History was Made"

Now here's the real challenge. After the election yesterday, there is only one thing left to do. (Actually, I suppose you come up with a lot of things left to do, but just go with it.) We have to not only trust Jesus, but we have to praise Jesus.

Psalm 42:6-8
He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Hebrews 13:15
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

I had a feeling the outcome of the election would be this way and I'm struggling to see the importance of just one vote (even though I was six months off of being able to vote anyway), but God is in control. God is in control of my life, this country and all governments. God is in control and we should praise Him.

One Vote