by Jackie Beeler
I believe in the work that God does through Spilling Hope. I believe in uniting as a community to simplify, learn, and give. I believe that God calls me to open my eyes to the needs of others around me and respond with love.
Unfortunately, I also believe in Potbelly sandwiches.
The week after Easter, a new Potbelly Sandwich Shop (my guilty pleasure from back when I lived in metro Detroit) began construction near my job downtown. My commitment to forego buying lunch at work during Spilling Hope has been mostly successful, minus a few forgotten sack lunches, but when the store opened last week I consciously began the mental countdown to Celebration Sunday and my joyous reunion with my favorite turkey sandwich.
I dislike bringing my lunch to work. It is easy to submit to the office culture of daily takeout and ditch the extra effort needed to plan, prepare, and carry a lunch. I already draw enough unsolicited attention on the bus by being the little girl with the big bag; must I add to the madness by carrying more? Certainly, God does not NEED me to carry my lunch to work every day. I’ve kept my end of the bargain for the last seven weeks – is that enough? Have I followed God’s command yet?
When I fail to look for ways to simplify and grow post-50 days of Spilling Hope, I’m answering God’s call with the influence of culture rather than the spirit of love. Limiting God to working in a 50-day time span is to look at Spilling Hope as part of my agenda rather than a cause through which God is working. The time we’ve spent simplifying our lives to provide clean water and resources for our brothers and sisters in Uganda and Rwanda are not weeks that we have given to God – rather, weeks that God has given to us. During the course of this campaign God has revealed to us ways in which our culture has blinded us – “needs” that are now presented to us in a completely different light. To close our eyes and our hearts to this revelation after Celebration Sunday is to inhibit God from continuing to work through us, to step away from His hope and take back the part of our life that we’ve relinquished to Him. It is saying that we believe that hope and joy is found in our purchases and our wealth instead of in His hands.
I am excited for Celebration Sunday. It is good and wonderful to joyfully recognize the ways in which we are blessed and the avenues through which God is working. If we truly respond in love to God’s call, we will use that celebration to give God space to reveal other places in which He desires to reach into our lives. The opportunity is before us; He waits only for us to let go of another thing in our grasp. A true reason to celebrate.
