"I was so Blessed..."

Since following God into this world of "speaking", I've come to learn a thrilling aspect of the Christian Life that had eluded me before. Of course I didn't know that it had eluded me. For I had heard people say "it's such a blessing..." or "I was so blessed by..." and I assumed that I knew what their Christian-ese meant.

But I had no idea the depth of it's meaning until I partnered with the Women's Ministry Team at Horizon Christian Fellowship in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. At every turn during their Christmas Tea last month, as well as the young mom's ministry I spoke at last week, I received blessing after blessing in their midst. Their collective joy in the Lord is contagious; and the transparency among them reveals that that joy has been hard won through testimonies of perseverance, prayer, and God's faithfulness. I left their midst Spiritually dripping with oil. I had come to serve, but I left having grown in turn. Their care for my own personal growth, as I follow God's call on my life, feels like a Mission of Mothers, cheering on a Daughter. The only way to explain it: "It has been such a Blessing!"

Memories of high school mission trips to Mexico, building churches and homes for Pastors, leading VBS camps, and simply worshipping with Christ's body across the Border, now flood back to me. How could I have forgotten the love and the joy, the absolute out-pouring of gratitude that shone from their faces, the humility that melted our pride... how could I have forgotten the Blessing we teenagers received in turn?

I pray I don't forget again. I want to live life serving God, not for the gift of the Blessing, but for the confirmation it brings. We were made for this. Serving. Doing our part in God's Great Plan. Doing the Work He prepared for each one of us to do, from the beginning of time. We are, after all, His Poema... created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Living in step with His Spirit, leads us from one such good work, and one such Blessing to the next. That is what I'm learning most as I ponder these recent "Blessings."