Kristen's Day (Saturday)

A couple Sundays ago, Pastor Scott had a quote in his sermon that said "Never aim for a target you can hit" and at first I didn't really understand the true meaning of this quote, but after the first 4 days of Love Out Loud-Seattle, I think I can actually wrap my mind around what that quote truely means.

On Wednesday morning I headed out with my group to Tacoma to start organizing what our director Robin called a "yard sale". We had no idea what was really in store. Tee Kinchus, our fantastic group leader, was even completely blind going in and none of us expected to open a double car garage door to find an ENTIRE garage stuffed to the breaking point with clothes. New born clothes, toddler clothes, kids shirts and pants, womens shirts and pants, mens shirts and pants, baby clothes from 3 months to 18 months and everything in between. To say I was overwhelmed would be the understatement of the year. I turned to Tee and said that there was no possible way to sort all of these clothes in time for the massive Yard Sale Saturday. Not with only 5 people, not with only 3 days and not with this many clothes! However, we had to try so we started the monotonous and discouraging task of piling up clothes, folding them, sorting them into sizes, and putting them back into toppling piles on the shelves. On Wednesday alone we spent 6 or 7 hours doing the same thing over and over and when we closed the garage door that night I was completely and utterly discouraged. It seemed that we had done absolutely nothing in the many hours we spent there. We hadn't even touched the adult clothes yet! And our group was switching with another group the next day and wouldn't be back until Friday...

All day Thursday I thought about how much we still had to complete and hoped that the other group was making progress. I kept asking God how in the world he could have expected us to finish a project so huge and the more I asked and the more I thought the more disheartened I became. I dreaded going back and I dreaded the thought that I would have to face the fact that, even though we tried, we weren't able to finish... and that killed me. I went to sleep Thursday night just praying for something miraculous to happen and that when we opened that garage door in the morning the magical sorting fairy would have visited that topsy turvy garage and everything would be sparkling and perfectly stacked and sorted. (I always was a big fan of Disney movies...)

However, to my great dissapointment, when we opened the garage door on Friday morning, no magical sorting fairy had visited and the task ahead still seemed impossible. So, I thought, "Ok God, I'm completely overwhelmed and this seems to impossible. But please, please, please, please help us get this done." At that moment I took charge. I was terrified that someone would get angry or offended and would think I was trying to be the big guy in charge, but I knew this had to get done and that we had 6 hours that day to do it. Luckily we had an amazing group of not 5 but 8 girls who never judged my bossy leap into action but took action and immediatly did anything I asked without a single complaint. We not only finished sorting and folding every single article of baby or kids clothes but also every piece of adult clothing as well; All completely willingly and with a happy heart. I was blessed with an amazing team that had come on this trip completely willing and ready to serve and I love each and every one of them for it.

But there willingness didn't stop there. On Saturday at the yard sale they all helped set up the tables and when we were all done at the end of the day they helped bag clothes that Step by Step was donating AND paciently delt with me as I reorganized the entire garage just because I'm anal. But when I sat down in the middle of the garage floor that was completely empty and free from unsorted bags of clothes I couldn't help but be proud of myself and my team and be absolutely in awe of God. He really never gave us a task that was impossible, my human mind just couldn't comprehend his plan.

The task that Robin set before us on Wednesday was not a target that I or my group could ever hit alone, but I've been able to comprehend even more this week that with God, absolutely nothing is impossible.