Redefining the elephant...if I may

Everybody knows about 'the elephant in the room'. It's that staff person you won't let go when you know you should or that project that got pushed through that nobody really liked 'cept the boss... you know, the thing everybody wants to talk about, but nobody will. Just to be brief, air it out. The longer you let it go the bigger a problem it becomes. Trust me.

But there's another 'elephant in the room'.

This elephant is when something really big is happening and you are missing it. Something's going on right before your eyes, it's God sized, but you are going right on with the meeting or carrying on about whatever is on your schedule, totally missing the big thing, the real thing, the God thing that's happening right before your eyes.

We were helpin' a gal get to a treatment center. It was a classic friday afternoon project, with a whole lot to do and a little time to do it. But one of our volunteers (who has a passion for girls raised in the closets of their homes) offered to help this young woman. So I just gave her the list: find out what she needs to bring with her and go get it, put her up in a motel, get her a bus ticket, feed her, love on her till she leaves and... make sure she gets on the bus.

And oh by the way, here's the bank card.

Couple days later, in a worship enviroment, this volunteer came up to one of our staff with tears in her eyes and said, "You don't know how big of a deal that was last week. You just handed me the ministry's bank card. I've never beeen trusted like that before." We missed it. We had just given her a nuclear amount of love in the form of a simple act of trust. For us... gettin the job done, for her... you love me, you believe in me, you think I matter... I'm alive!

Lee came in yesterday. He's a dear friend of the ministry who has come farther in the last six months than many of us come in a lifetime. He got offered a job to mow a lawn in the neighborhood 'cause... after rent and stuff, he only has 60 bucks a week to live on... food and all. Well, he came in my office and said, "Hey Bobby, would you mind if I give that job to Matt, he doesn't have a job at all. I'd like to invest in him." Huh!? That's investing 25% of your food money. Would I do that?

Case your missin it, that's an elephant. There is so much to learn from these large God things that are happening all around us. My guess is that today, something like that will happen around you... something so cool that if you're just blurring through your routine, you'll miss it.

You can't miss these things... they're just too good to miss.

God... send the elephants.

BC