Today I ran into an old friend at Target. Maybe she would fall in the category of acquaintance, I'm not really sure. We have the same first name though so I feel like that automatically bumps her up a circle. Anyways, we were in a social club together years ago and now just see random posts on each other's on social media. I like keeping up with her. She has two cute kids, same season of life as me. As I walked by in Target, I had sort of an awkward hesitation in that we don't really know each other outside of social media. But that's not so unusual these days, I think. So I said hi and we spent a few minutes catching up. At one point she shared that she had gone through some infertility struggles with her second child and she said she had read and found encouragement in my blog. Wow. I seriously was blown away. First, that chapter of my life seems like a whole different book at this point. The days when I would bare my soul online not really caring who, if anyone, read the words. Second, I was so honored that years after my struggles, God is still redeeming them by bringing comfort to others. Talk about humbling. It was really a gift and as is true to form for my personality, I don't like to receive a gift and tuck it away. I like to analyze and think about how I can share it. Just this past weekend, my pastor was talking about using our struggles to comfort those in similar seasons. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV) My sweet friend the "other Nicole" revealed to me today that I did that, for at least one person. And I know the only reason I was able to do that was because of the comfort I received from The Lord and from my friends who had been through it before me, like Ashly and another sweet sister of mine. What a gift from The Lord to know that a struggle I thought was well behind me is still providing comfort to others.
So, love does.
Oh that might not make sense so let me back up. A few months ago I read an incredible book called Love Does by Bob Goff. I highly recommend it. It will make you laugh so hard you snort and then you'll slam the book on the table and prepare to change the world. The premise of the book is just as the title implies....love does. Love does stuff. (Stuff, a word my high school English teacher would fail a student for using in an actual literary piece.) But it's true, love doesn't just sit back and hope and pray that someone will help/give/volunteer/do/etc. Love prompts us to do it ourselves. To slam the book down and start doing.
Today God gave me a gift of affirmation. So with that give, I will do. (Speaking of proper English grammar.) What I mean is, I will do what The Lord prompts me to do. In less than one week I leave for 2 weeks on a trip to east Asia to love on and care for some special needs orphans. I didn't want to at first....but that's the sort of thing that love does. Love leaves family, friends, and the comfort of home to fly quite literally to the other side of the globe for the sole purpose of loving on 9 special needs babies that nobody wants. So now I'm pretty pumped. I don't know if you know this about me but I have more love than any one person or family can handle. I have to spread it out a bit. In preparation for my trip, I'm working on encouragement gifts for my kids, my amazing hubby, and our other amazing caregivers. I should probably be sleeping but love does pack 30 little dollar store gifts into individual brown paper bags so that my kids know how much I miss them every single day. Love snuggles extra long during naptime even though there are 1000 things to be done. And love (apparently in my world) monograms little gifts for each team member that I'll travel with so that they feel appreciated.
So what does love do with my gift of affirmation today? Love continues to bare the depths of my struggles in order to provide comfort for at least one. My pastor often says "do for one what you wish you could do for all." So I'll start trying to go one by one, baring my soul, in hopes that in doing so I can comfort just one. Life is full of struggles, big and small. How we respond to the struggle and how we use it for kingdom of Heaven make all the difference in the world.
I mentioned this to my husband and he said "I thought the same thing when I heard that last sermon. Are you going to publish your book now?" Leeeettttttt's not get crazy. Baby steps. In this season, I'm lucky to complete a thought, let alone a blog post or even (gasp!) an entire book! Baby steps. But as Paul said in his letter to the church in Corinth, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV). If love is the greatest...and if love does...then I better get to doing.
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8 NIV).
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