I’ve heard it said pray until you pray. There’s no time requirement, no special number of minutes or verbiage that must be used. But, there is something to praying until you find yourself really praying, not just stringing words together but actually communing with God. You can apply the same principle to studying God’s word—study until you learn something.

Here’s the thing.

I’m so bad at that.

I do. I’m much better at doing than being, at list making than peace making. So, this summer, I asked some peeps for some help.

Help. Please hold me accountable. I’m on summer vacation but I don’t want a vacation from God. And, making me feel way less isolated and unable, they wanted help too.

Every Wednesday morning at 6:30am, 7 ladies meet for coffee (and maybe sometimes donuts). We sit in the corner of a Dunkin Donuts and share.

Did you read this week what you told us you were reading?

Share one thing you actually absorbed from it, one thing that stuck with you, one thing that you remembered after you stood up from where you sat reading.

And, it’s working. Knowing that we are gathering midweek and reporting to our sisters is enough to hold us accountable and keep us on that path of walking with Him and not on our own which we silly ewes tend to do. There’s no preaching to each other—our lessons shared are sometimes deep theological truths that are hard to explain or very simple Sunday School ones like Jesus period. It doesn’t matter what they are as much as the fact that they stuck, that we didn’t get up from our comfy spot to fix cereal for our kids and then forget all about the time we spent with our Maker. And, there’s no judgment at all when someone says, “I didn’t open my Bible at all this week” or “I just can’t believe in prayer.” No one gasps or shakes their head. Instead, we listen and then we say in one way or another: We accept you where you are because He accepts you where you are. But, we aren’t going to leave you there because He doesn’t want to leave you there. Where do you want to be next week? 

I just finished reading Micah. Today, I started Philippians—the church that started with one brilliant woman whose life changed by a stream when she met two men who loved the Lord. I am not using a guide or a commentary. I don’t have a daily reading plan I’m following. I just want to read it little by little, a little everyday until I feel like I’ve got something I can cling to that day. And, when I get that, I want to stop and dwell on it, sit with it and let it soak in.

Today, I only got through 5 verses.

 

As I start this new book, I decided I’m going to try to share my little kernel of truth everyday on my blog Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram—the places that serve as my corner in Dunkin Donuts with my faraway friends and blogosphere peeps. Would love for you to look for the images and hold me accountable if you don’t see one that day—a little “looking forward to seeing your pic today!” may be just what I need. And, feel free to join me. I’d love to see your pictures of what you’re reading too.

Warning: If it becomes another item on my to-do list, something that is feeding my Type A craziness rather than working within my personality to keep me walking with Him, you may stop seeing any images at all. We’ll see how this goes.

 

He never knows what to get me. I can just picture Mark walking around the Beijing market, vendors calling out to the Meiguo ren showing him their pearls and silk. He sent me an email while I slept one night with the subject line “Found you an awesome prize” and these words: “Really cool and very excited about it! Hope you like it.”

He had ventured a little off the beaten path to an open market where digging for treasure is required. As he dug, he found an old heavy bowl made to look like a basket with characters on each side. It was made to hold grain and sit in the center of your table with the message translated: Every year, we have just enough.

It’s been sitting in the center of our table since he got home from China last week, gently reminding my sometimes wayward heart. When he left his full-time career in the finance industry in October of last year, our world dramatically changed. We have had to believe that every year, we will have just enough. In that is a juxtaposition of joy and freedom with the desire to hold on even tighter just in case. 

The team I’m leading to China this October to an orphanage is just getting started. But, there’s another team going to a different orphanage in the same area in China in just a couple weeks now. A young girl named April had committed to being a part of that team. Allow me to introduce her to you in this video.

 

When she sensed a nudged in her spirit to go, she responded, not letting any limitations get in the way of her walking in His will for her. But, the trip coordinator shared yesterday that April’s going may not happen. She was over $1000 short of the funds she needed to go, and those funds were needed today.

Every year, we have just enough. In this case, just enough was an awful lot. I hesitated for a few seconds, my wayward heart wondering if His provision may have a limit and wondering what I could do as one who needs His provision too. If I tried to rally people to come alongside, would I be taking grain out of our own bowl to fill another, leaving ours partly empty? Could I trust God to supply our portion and then stand guard around it, essentially believing that He may fill it once…but again and again?

I shared her need. Others did too. And, people responded. Trusting Him to supply a need that can only He can do is contagious. By 8pm last night, several hours after I first heard of her need, several hours after April had resigned that she would not be going to China after all, she was completely funded. Every last dollar. Paid in full. Just like Paul reported how the churches of Macedonia had responded to the needs they were made aware of, people gave according to their means and beyond their means, earnestly asking for the pleasure of taking part in meeting April’s needs so she could go (2 Cor 8:3-4).

My bowl from that market in China sits before me, forged by hands belonging to someone who likely does not love the author of the message it reads and brought home to me by a husband who knew the truth I need to see day in and day out.

Every year, every day, every moment, He gives us just what we need. And, not only does He meet us at our very point of need and supply it, but He takes great pleasure in doing it. There is no reluctance or hesitation, only a desire to bless us for His glory and our good. My bowl is full today as is April’s, and I’m trusting they will be refilled again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that by the One whose love and generosity has no limit and overflows and pours out into eternity.