Office Depot

Many friends and family members have been anxiously asking “when are you going to start writing you blog!?” My response has been that I really don’t know that I will have much to write about leading up to when I leave for the world race. (also honestly I may have been avoiding it since I am a bit insecure about my ability to write well) I think I have been treating this experience like the mission starts the day I leave the country but it has already started and doesn’t end the day I come home. 

God sure has been teaching, challenging, and preparing me. One thing that has really stuck with me lately is the story of Brother Lawrence. In seventeenth-century France Brother Lawrence faithfully and humbly served the Lord in a monastery kitchen. To him, “common business,” no matter how mundane was a medium of God’s love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. 

“We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”

It is said that many people came just to watch him wash dishes because the Lords presence was so evident around him.

This challenged me. I began to pray that even in the little things, that I view as simply routine, I would really do it as if I was doing it for the Lord. So, in the Office Depot parking lot the other day I found myself praying “God please let your presence go with me into this office supply store”. I am completely aware that it sounds a bit silly, in the spirit of transparency, I felt a little silly praying it. All I was doing was going into the store to pick up an order of prayer cards and support letters for the world race. I had received a text saying that my order was ready so I should have been in and out. Turns out they could not find my order anywhere in the store. They said just give us 15 minuets and we will have it reprinted. It may have only taken them 15 minuets if nearly every piece of equipment in the store hadn’t broken in the next few moments. Ok that is a bit of an exaggeration. Three printers and one of the check out stations broke. Everything was getting backed up and costumers were getting irritated with the wait. I could see one of the workers almost in tears so I started to pray. I prayed that Gods spirit would change the atmosphere, and it sure did! Instead of tears and frustration, I could see smiles and laughter. Workers and customers began to approach me and ask what I was doing at the Office Depot (of course as people normally do at an office supply shop). I got to tell so many people about the world race and how God is working in my life! Some of them even ended up giving me donations later on! (Shout out to any of my office depot friends who may read this). 

I ended up spending over 2 hours in the Office Depot and it was awesome!

I had planned out my time for that evening. In my mind I had things to do and places to be. God had a different plan and He reminded me it is His time, not my own. I left that Office Depot feeling like I may explode from the amount of joy I was experiencing. I think If I had gone in without first aligning myself with the Lord though that prayer I would have missed all of this really cool moment that God blessed me with.