Monday, April 04, 2011

Every good and perfect gift is from above... James 1:17

God is good.

Let me tell you.

Ismael and I helped lead worship last night for a combined service with the Kaleo Fellowship (where we go to church here in Bakersfield) and the Oildale Christian Fellowship. We got together on Thursday night last week at Andy and Stephanie's house with the rest of the band. Stephanie made dinner for us and then we played some music in their living room. Ismael played Andy's electric drums, I sang, Andy played guitar, Stephanie played percussion and Doug played harmonica. It was a fun little band practice....Ismael and I were the only representatives of Kaleo there and so it was neat to spend some time with new people. We spent some time sharing and getting to know each other a little better and it was really nice. At the end of the night I left feeling both extremely blessed and a little bit frustrated. God just put these wonderful people in our lives, and it feels really good to make new friends. But it seems like I always start to make new friends right when I'm about to leave to go somewhere else for a long time. I was wishing we could have gotten to know them months ago. But...it's always a blessing to have new friends.

We went to church last night and played worship and it was really fun. And something really amazing happened. After the service, Andy and Stephanie said to Ismael and I, "Hey guys that was awesome, thanks again for helping with worship tonight, it was really fun. Hey, listen we've been thinking and praying about this ever since you guys left our house the other night, and we really feel like this is something God is telling us to do. So, we want to give you guys the drums. We can see how much Ismael loves to play and we're just really excited about what you're doing in Ecuador and we want to bless you, so we want you to have the drums."

Wow!

Let me explain how amazing this is. I'm blown away. This is like an answer to a prayer that we didn't even pray. Ismael has been talking about wanting an electric drum kit for the last nine months. It would be such a blessing to have something like that in Ecuador. It would mean we could have band practices in our home without disturbing the neighbors. It would mean Ismael could have quality practice time on the drums. He's very good. And if he had his own drums he could really develop his talent more. It would mean he could give drum lessons out of our home as a means of earning extra income. But any kit that's decent costs a ton of money. Hey, even the low-quality kids cost a ton of money. So we just thought it was a dream...it would take years to save up enough on our income to even buy a basic kit with a limited number of drums and cymbals. And we never even went to God with the idea because it was just an idea...just a dream. Well, last night God answered the prayer that we would have prayed had we prayed. And that is cool.

And the neat part for me on a personal level is that I had just...literally, JUST been thinking about the different ways we all show and understand love. You know, like the 5 love languages concept. I got to thinking during the worship service about how I am a gifter. If someone gives me a gift, whether it's something they bought with me in mind, or if it's a gesture like buying me lunch or a cup of coffee, or writing me a card or a letter...if someone physically gives me something that makes me feel so so loved. And I got to thinking about the ways God shows us love. I was thinking, "does God love us in our own love languages?" and I started to think about what kind of gifts God has given me. I'm ashamed to say I kind of played down the way God shows me love. I thought, "God doesn't send me cards in the mail. And He doesn't bring me breakfast in bed. And He doesn't really go shopping for something to buy me. But he does give me gifts like...new friends...and he gives me moments with people I love. He gives me gifts of working out problems...things like that. But not really gifts in the traditional sense of the word." I mean I thought all that...and not 20 minutes later it was as if God said, "What do you mean I don't give you gifts? Here...open this!"

Can you imagine?

God is so good. And he gives such good gifts...even though we are so undeserving. We're so blessed, and we're so grateful for the new friends God has put in our lives and for the ways in which they have already blessed us incredibly. I hope we will be just as much of a blessing to them.

Now...to figure out how to transport an electric drum kit to Ecuador :-)

1 Comments:

Blogger Trento said...

Amen!

Although I still would like to see God love me with some physical touch. Actually, maybe I wouldn't, then I might be dead.

12:17 PM  

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