So, I realize that I’m a little biased… but Abby’s sermon was brilliant!!
If you haven’t had a chance to take it in yet, I highly recommend it.
(Apologies to literally all of our KidzHarbour leaders who have already heard me pass along this exact same recommendation, haha)
As Abby gave an overview of the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt and much of their time in the wilderness, she dropped countless gems along the way. I’ve been ruminating on many of the things she preached since Sunday, and honestly, ever since she did her first run-through of this sermon with me last week!!
One of these gems that has really, really captured my attention was when she said this:
“The people got very used to God’s provision.
This wasn’t some freak accident where there’s food on the floor for them to get.
This was happening every day…
And they got so used to God’s gift that they could complain about it.
They were complaining about the sameness of it all.”
She went on to preach about how the Israelites had taken God (and all of his miraculous provisions for them) for granted. The Israelites got bored with the exact same miracles that had completely blown them away at the beginning.
On Sunday, February 25th, we will be celebrating all of our Volunteers at LifeSpring and I just cannot help but see the Lord’s sense of humour and sovereignty with this timing!
We truly have been blessed at LifeSpring with the seemingly mundane miracles of people who show up every Sunday to run our tech and our sound; people who arrive early to prepare snacks for our growling bellies after service and people who arrive early to help us prepare our hearts to enter into the presence of God in worship!
Again, biased as I may be, I am continually flabbergasted by the faithfulness I witness in our KidzHarbour Shepherds!! Our team has grown, and so have our kids, and each Sunday there are grown-ups who show up for each and every one of them. There is no chance I could ever do this job without the support and the dedication – the weekly miracle – of our volunteers.
And so, as we make preparations this week to honour and celebrate our volunteers, I can’t help but hear Abby’s words ringing in the back of my mind…
“Will there ever be a time that we get so used to it (all the ways that God has blessed us at LifeSpring) that we say it’s just the same old, same old thing?
Will we ever get to the point where we take what God has given us for granted?
Because what God gives us is a gift.
It might be the same gift every day, but it’s still a gift.”
We will be setting apart an entire service for Volunteer Appreciation… a pretty significant step towards reminding ourselves not to take one another for granted!
How can we also be checking our hearts to make sure we’re not taking God for granted? How will we choose to set apart time in our lives to appreciate our Saviour and Redeemer? To celebrate the fact that God is God With Us and that we never have to begin a day without the Daily Bread of his presence?
May we be people who earnestly seek out what the Lord is doing in our midst and also be people of immense gratitude!