Back when our church decided to plan a mission trip for this summer, we knew that raising $2000 per person was going to be a daunting task, so we put on the calendar to have a tag sale to raise some money towards the trip.  As fundraisers go, the tag sale can be pretty painless – collect a lot of stuff, price it, sell it, and clean up the leftovers, usually all in a 24-hour period. 

Painless, of course, if it’s being coordinated by someone who knows how to coordinate things.

The great news, of course, is that the mission team raised all their money fairly quickly, thanks to the generosity of our church and their friends and family.  However, since a lot of people had already been collecting things for the tag sale, I decided to keep the tag sale on the calendar, and use the money for a different worthy cause.  After some debate, we settled on using half of the money to replenish our benevolent fund, and the other half to bless the ministry of Isaiah 58, which we had learned from Ray Labbe had lost some of their supporting churches.   Isaiah 58, a ministry to the hungry and homeless of New Britain, has been a ministry our church has been involved with for many years, and they have consistently done great work for the Lord.

But of course, with the mission team out of the picture, that meant I was coordinating the effort.  And with my lack of coordination skills, it wound up being the night before the sale, with my wonderful wife Michele and me sorting through piles of stuff in our house, pricing them, and loading them into the van.  And as I drove to the church office early the next morning (after getting probably three hours of sleep), I was trying to remember why I had even kept the tag sale on the calendar in the first place.

Well, the sale went just fine – just about everything of any value sold, lots of people helped out from the church, and even the weather was great.  And in the end we raised a little under $600, of which we were able to give $285 to Isaiah 58.  A nice little gift, but more importantly another painful reminder of how frustrating and last-minute things tend to be when I’m doing the organizing.

And then I got this letter in the mail last week:

Dear Eric & church family,

My how you have blessed us with your special gift.  Just when one of our faithful supporters have been unable to send their regular support check you stepped in with the difference!  Through you God met our need with $12.00 to spare… how sweet is that.  We continue to give thanks to our Lord for your obedience and faithfulness.

God bless you richly,

Ray & Linda Labbe

 Last spring, I preached a sermon series on the life of Joseph.  One of the features that stands out the most about his life is how so much of what happened to him appeared to me completely random and even evil – his brothers sell him to slave traders who happen to be heading to Egypt, he gets falsely put into a prison where he happens to share space with the king’s cupbearer and baker, and he ends up being in Egypt when the Pharoah needs someone to interpret a dream.  All along the way, Joseph is the victim of horrible circumstances and few things seem fair.  And yet, in the end, here is Joseph, prince of Egypt, second in command to Pharaoh, humbled of his earlier arrogance and saving the people of God from starvation.  The sovereignty of God in this story is simply stunning and beyond comprehension.  Somehow, despite all the evil and mistakes and suffering, God somehow orchestrated it all to get Joseph exactly where He needed to be at the exact moment he needed to be there.  The story always blows my mind.

 If I had to do it over again, I don’t know that I would have done the tag sale.  And I surely would not have organized it the way I did, leaving so much to the last minute.  And yet somehow, in the midst of all the chaos and frustration, God was still at work, orchestrating it all for His good purpose.  He knew that the Labbes needed extra money that month for their work, and He heard their cry for help and sent them exactly what they needed – plus a little extra for the rising gas prices.

 I stand in awe of my God, who is always able to work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  What a wonderful, sovereign God He is.  Know that however random and evil your circumstances may seem to you, our sovereign and loving Father is able to orchestrate it all so that the end result will be immeasurably more than you could have hoped for.

Write a comment