Instruments of Grace
In the fall we took 3 Sundays to share some vision for City Awakening. We introduced the idea of being Instruments of Grace – each believer serving, as Paul says, as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. We mainly focused on they “why” behind the vision, but we wanted to equip our congregation with practical tools to begin putting this into practice. As a result, we decided to give each individual or family a $40 gift card to serve as a catalyst to their missional living. There were no stipulations on how the card was used, we just wanted people to find an opportunity to care for someone else whether that was taking a co-worker to lunch, meeting the need of a stranger, or baking cookies for neighbors. These are a few stories of how that money was used:
“I am a nurse at a local hospital. A few days after the cards were given out, I was assigned a patient - a 2-year-old that was brought to the hospital for belly pain. The problem turned out to be a very large tumor, which resulted in emergency surgery. He also had to begin undergoing chemo treatments. I also found out that both of this little boy’s parents work at the hospital in environmental services. The surgery and treatments meant that they had to take a lot of time off of work. It was the perfect opportunity for me to bless them by using the gift card to at least buy a few meals for them while they were in the hospital. I wrote an anonymous card letting them know someone was praying for them and included an invite card to City Awakening. I pray that it was an encouragement to them and that a Gospel seed was planted.”
“With our gift card we were able to purchase donuts for our neighbors who are not Christians. Our oldest daughter has become friends with their daughter, so we wanted to continue to build the relationship, even though their lifestyle and beliefs are not the same as ours. We wrote them a card and included a Christ-centered message.
We also used part of the gift card to care for another neighbor across the street. This is a single mom who also has the responsibility of taking care of her very elderly dad. He can no longer walk, which was making it very difficult for him to get in and out of the house. We were able to build a new wooden handicap ramp for them to make access to the house much easier.”
“We are still fairly new to our neighborhood and are trying to get to know our neighbors. We used the gift card to buy baking supplies. We baked 9 cakes, wrapped them up and delivered them to our neighbors as a simple Christmas gift. It’s created an ongoing conversation with many of them when we see them out getting their mail or working in their yards. We’re praying for more opportunities to connect and care for them in the future.”
“Some of our friends are not believers. We’ve been praying for them and trying to find opportunities to share the Gospel with them. We used our gift card to take them to dinner so that we can continue to build a relationship and hopefully point them to Jesus.”
“One of my co-workers had surgery right around the time we received the gift card. I was able to use that money to provide dinner for her as she was recovering.”
None of these stories are extravagant or news-worthy, but they are definitely worth celebrating. Each one is an example of everyday men and women using everyday needs and opportunities to care for someone else in hopes of leading them closer to Jesus. $40 is not a life-changing amount of money, but it can lead to a life-changing encounter. Most of us can find a way to squeeze an extra $40 out of our monthly budgets. What if we began to set aside money, time, and energy for the purpose of pursing needs and building relationships with the people that are within our circles of influence. These stories show that it doesn’t take much, it just takes intentionality. Choose to see the world through a different lens, and look for opportunities to be an instrument of grace today.
