Monday Mediocrity: My Ministry (What I Have, I Offer: Part 2)
Ordinary Efforts for an Extraordinary God
This weekend was an answer to prayer.
It was a front-row seat to a God who takes our little—our ordinary, limited, imperfect offerings—and magnifies them beyond anything we could plan.
As I looked around the room, I was humbled. Humbled because I know there’s no way I could ever pull off something like this alone. Humbled because I get to serve alongside a team of women with completely different strengths, skill sets, and perspectives, but one heart. One God. One shared desire: for the women of Charleston to know that God delights in them, to see their churches flourish, and to see His name exalted.
At least 56 churches. One voice of praise.
I watched women reunited with old friends they had been praying would come back to church. I saw new friendships form with women eager to join our women’s ministry leader cohort. I saw my own friend, who “just happened to” sit in the very seat I prayed over months ago, reminded that God never wastes a single prayer.
And I saw another dear friend, who faced a cancer diagnosis just last year, stand on stage and praise the God who has stopped her cancer from growing. She closed the conference in worship. A year ago, we didn’t know if she would even be here, and this weekend, she was singing.
When we offer Him our limitations, our broken bodies, our developing skill sets, and our shaky yes, He does much. He moves us into work already set in motion by His Spirit and fueled by His vision.
A year and a half ago, four women sat in a Charleston restaurant and prayed. That’s how it started. And this weekend, we got a glimpse of heaven’s door. Never again this side of eternity will that same group of women gather exactly like this. But one day, I pray that every woman in that room will stand together in His glory, singing again.
When I walked onto the stage at the end to give a few closing words and thank everyone, I was overwhelmed. I felt small and intimidated, like I didn’t belong after so many incredible speakers and leaders. But then I realized I wasn’t there because I was impressive. I was there because God asked me to step up.
And I’m so glad I did.
I may have lost my shoe somewhere (yes, shoe, not shoes), worn the most wonderfully obnoxious gigantic pineapple earrings ever, and probably forgotten to hold the microphone close enough to my mouth half the time. I may be mediocre at event planning, at ministry, and at focus. But God still showed up, over and over again.
He took our little, and He did much.
