It all began with a routine trip into Libby to our local supermarket. I don’t even remember what I went in for. I just remember the lesson I learned that day.
Let me give a little back story first. I’m learning to create victory cycles in my life. You know, the good kind of cycles. We hear a lot about goals and new years resolutions and the long-standing joke with the average person is that it’s really all a grand scheme of ideas that fizzle out by the end of January, to which you go back to old habits and mindsets. Victory cycles are the opposite of this. It’s when you make a decision to exchange the old habits and mindsets for creating beneficial cycles that will not only bless your life but it will bless the lives of many others. Thus creating a cycle of growth, blessing and reward in your life.
One of the victory cycles I’m choosing to create for 2022 is the cycle of blessing . We all like to be blessed, right? I love it when someone unexpectedly blesses me with a kind word or a gift. Most of all, I love it when I am fully aware of the blessings that God gives us every day. Health. A warm bed. A hot cup of tea. A blanket. My husband. And the list goes on. The power of gratitude creates a cycle of blessing because it ensures that you will not run out of things to be grateful for.
But blessings go much deeper than that. Let me give you an example. I’m back in the supermarkert now. I’m at the checkout line and I have just bought a bundle of beautiful pink and yellow carnations. I wanted something that reminded me of spring in the middle of a long winter. I paid for it and was walking out the door when a voice that was almost audible, echoed in my spirit, “Give those flowers to the cashier. She needs to know that she is seen and loved and heard. She needs to know she is doing a good job and that someone noticed.”
I immediately started rationalizing in my mind why this wouldn’t be necessary. Sound familiar? Thoughts like “I bought these for me.” “I don’t know her. ” “She probably doesn’t even like carnations.” And on like that. I jumped in my car and proceeded to drive home, all the while feeling a great conviction stirring in my heart. I thought the conviction would go away after awhile. It didn’t.
Just to clarify, conviction is not the same as guilt and condemnation. I didn’t feel guilty or condemned. Clearly, what I was sensing was not some random idea I had or a passing whim that I wanted 2022 to be a year of blessing. It was the Living, breathing, breath of God in my Spirit, teaching me, in all my humanity, that in order to be blessed, I must learn to bless.
Honestly, by the time I got home, I felt like Jonah must have felt when he was running from God and his assignment to go to Ninevah. Now trust me, my assignment to this lady this particular day was nothing to compare with what Jonah’s assignment must have felt like to him. But the excuses in my mind and the urge to run were strikingly similar.
I set my flowers in water and proceeded to arrange them in a nice bouquet. I thought I would enjoy them. For two days I heard a voice telling me that I stole those flowers. So I stared miserably at my “stolen” flowers and wondered how I could ever again enjoy carnations.
You see, I robbed someone of a blessing that day. And by doing so, I robbed myself of a blessing. I felt terribly selfish and humbled and decided that the only way this was going to be made right is if I decide to go back to the supermarket, buy more flowers and give them away.
An important lesson stood out to me as I drove the 7 miles back into town. In order to be blessed, one must first be a blessing. I must learn to give, cheerfully, willingly, and if for no other reason , just simply to bless someone. I must learn to give without thinking that I need something in return.
As I walked back into the supermarket 2 days later, I felt an overwhelming sense that I was doing the right thing. I bought one of the prettiest bouquets of roses and went to check out. Unfortunately, the cashier from the previous time was not there but I felt like this was the right thing and I needed to do it. After I’d checked out, just to be sure of who needed these, I walked around a bit, asking God to guide me to the right person.
Here is what He said. “It doesn’t matter who you give it to. I see everyone in here. You see, it’s not important to me that you have all the details right, all the words right, all the right prayers. What is important to me is that everyone realizes that I love to bless! A lot of people see Me as a God who is conditional, putting labels on me, comparing me to their past experiences, not accepting or receiving my love as a gift because they think it’s conditional and that I only love them them if they can give something back. As a result, many people strive, trying to please me, living under guilt and condemnation, and are not able to see me as a God who just loves to lavishly bless. ”
All this just while standing in the supermarket! Wow! This was going much deeper than I had even originally thought! I felt humbled that God would work through me to bless someone just to be an expression of who He is! Now I was excited!
I went back to the lady who had been my cashier and handed her the flowers. “Why?” she said surprise written all over her face. “Because,” I said. “You are special and seen and loved. ”
She smiled brightly and thanked me profusely for “making my day” as she put it. I asked her name, patted her shoulder, and told her to have a great weekend.
I don’t know who was smiling more at that point, me or her. But as I drove home I had the greatest sense of joy in my heart that I would have missed out on had I not gone back to make things right. I had blessed someone and they didn’t even expect it. I don’t know this person and I don’t know if I will ever see her again.
You see, the greatest blessings lie not in receiving but in giving without expecting anything in return.
That is the true test of blessing. Many times we want all the good things. All the blessings. But we aren’t willing to give. I’m not talking about the “if I don’t give, guilt and condemnation” type of giving, but the overwhelming conviction inside you that ” God is such a good God and He wants to bless you through the giving of your time, money and resources to bless other people without expecting anything in return” type of giving.
I plan to continue this cycle of giving and blessing in 2022. It will not always look the same. It could be a card or not of encouragement. It could be a surprise package in the mail for someone. It could be a text or a call to someone to connect with and encourage. It could be walking through the super market handing out 20 dollar bills to random people. It could be paying someone’s groceries or buying someone’s lunch. It could be be going on a coffee date with someone or a visit to the elderly or widows and people who are lonely. There are hundreds of ways to bless others!
In James 4:17 it says, ” to him who knows to do the right thing and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Perhaps that is one reason why I was so convicted about my “stolen flowers.”
This cycle of blessing and giving is really what life is all about. As someone once said, “One of my highest privileges is when I know I am being used by God to help others. ” Indeed!