Motivation

Out of the Comfort Zone
Andy Lie

{Ed. These comments are reprinted from Andy's 11/17/06 blog entry with his permission.}

I've described the assorted volunteer work that my wife and I do ad nauseam in these virtual pages, so I will spare you the sordid details of life coaching T-ball, writing PTO checks, leading a girl scout troop (my wife), teaching Sunday school, driving on field trips (both of us), or working in the classroom (my wife). With all this volunteer work, there are moments that I look up and go, "What am I doing?"

A few weeks back I casually mentioned to a fellow church member that I really needed to think about dropping one of my volunteer activities - I said this more out of a moment of exasperation rather than the reality of dropping an activity. But a few minutes later my wife informed me that she had volunteered us to assist in the church's Christmas ministry, to be done in conjunction with other churches in the area, to coordinate our church's role in providing gifts to children of those in incarceration. At the time I thought, "Well this should be relatively painless."

Last week I spoke with the lead person in our area coordinating this effort, setting up a meeting for earlier this evening to obtain the list of families our church would support, and the children for whom we would be purchasing gifts. I freely admit that I was more than a little bit annoyed in the days leading up to this meeting, as I hadn't been home for three evenings to spend time with my own kids, as I had other meetings to attend, and the third night in a row was going to wear on me. And given that my wife was headed to work at 11:30 p.m. tonight, she couldn't attend - but another church member had volunteered to assist us a couple of weeks ago, and she was able to attend.

Even so, I allowed myself to get caught up in what I, Andy, wanted, not what God wanted me to do in this ministry. I didn't want to go to this meeting; I didn't even want to volunteer for this ministry - I felt like I had been drafted, and my heart had been hardened.

Throughout the meeting I realized that there was going to be substantial planning on the part of all the churches involved to pull this off, as this program will culminate in all the children receiving their gifts at a big Christmas party next month. Each of us coordinators took on a part of the party to organize - I will be coordinating the games the kids play at the party - and in the back of my mind I thought, "How am I going to find the time to do this?"

But before that, we will need to contact the families to confirm the gifts the incarcerated parents want given to their kids, confirm clothing sizes, confirm preferred colors, toys and any other information that would allow us to purchase gifts suitable for these kids.

Then I looked at the names of the parents who are incarcerated - I looked at the names and ages of their children, and I looked at the messages the parents wanted on the gifts to their kids, most of which were variations of "Merry Christmas kids! I love you so much!"

Reading those notes hit home - once again I was reminded that this is not about me and my time. This is about me playing another role He has called me to in His kingdom, and God will make the time for me.

I have been able to recognize and hit the fastballs He's been throwing me, but now I need to be patient and wait on the change-up.

This is about reaching out to a part of the community that needs outreach, and God is using me, my church, and these other churches to spread His gospel.

God humbled me yet again tonight. Thank you, Father - I needed that.

Andy Lie is a dedicated blogger and church volunteer in Pacifica, California. These comments are reprinted from his blog with Andy's permission.