When God Delivers an Unexpected Blessing

Lately, waiting on a fresh post from me is like waiting for it to rain in Dallas in December. Well, it rained on Friday so I guess I’ll take that as a cue for me to write a new post. What do you do when everyday is filled with a surprise?

Okay, dear reader, here we go…

The Lord is ridiculous in His generosity.

A week ago Friday morning, I woke up around 4 a.m. like I typically do in order to spend 45 minutes to an hour with the Lord. It’s dark and still. The world is asleep. Our cat, Rice, usually takes advantage of this time to curl up in my lap. For him, it seems like his daily moment of nirvana. For me, it’s a time to reset, refocus, and realign my transformed heart and mind on the things of God and to create a space for me to lay the things of Rainer at God’s feet.

After my time with the Lord, I check my phone for texts and my email for any surprises. Part of my role as OurCalling’s Senior Operations Manager is to expect the unexpected. This would certainly prove true on this particular Friday, as well as the following day.

When you work for the Lord, learn to expect the unexpected.

I opened my email to find a late night email from our Church Relations Manager, Melissa. The content of Melissa’s email was a text that simply read: “We have your boxes. They are scheduled to be delivered to you guys tomorrow morning.”

Wow.

What a way to start the day!

In that moment, I knew that the delivery would include nine pallets–which meant a big trailer truck–and that one of those pallets contained a huge box of dinner rolls.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

In that moment, I had to make room in “Rainer’s schedule” for the day and make space for God’s plan. And honestly, that took me a minute.

When God blesses us unexpectedly, we must make room to receive His blessing with a grateful heart.

As the morning progressed, we learned that this delivery was a huge donation of food collected from one of our large church partners. Their church had gathered all of this food and packed it into over 300 boxes.

Around 2:30 p.m., an eighteen-wheeler pulled into our back parking lot where we usually receive donations and deliveries. A team of hands comprised of staff and volunteers unloaded the trailer by hand. When we opened the boxes, we were amazed at the generous abundance of food that each one of them contained.

The total delivery weighed 11,160 pounds. That’s right…

11,160 POUNDS.

That’s nearly six tons of food. SIX TONS.

Breathe and let that sink in for a minute.

A generous group of believers came together and decided to help their homeless neighbors living on the streets of Dallas by blessing them with nearly SIX TONS of food.

In this moment, after figuring out and resolving various scheduling and logistical issues on our end so that we would be ready to receive God’s unexpected blessing, my heart, my mind, and my soul were overwhelmed. I simply couldn’t fully comprehend God’s goodness anymore than I could completely process the generosity of the people who packed each box with a prayer in their heart and Christ’s love foremost on their mind.

When God blesses you with an unexpected harvest, you need to stop whatever you’re doing and position yourself to receive it.

Since each box was loaded with an overflow of different uncooked, non-perishable foods, we would need to sort through them and repack this unexpected generous donation.

This presented another challenge. Today was Friday. The following day would be Saturday. Most of our staff is off on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is a day we focus on building relationships with our guests and the abundance of volunteers that come spend their Saturday with us.

We decided that we would repack the boxes the next day with the help of our volunteers.

Sometimes how God’s blessing is received isn’t always the way it’s shared.

It’s important that in doing the work of the Lord that we hold our plans loosely and remain ready to be flexible and pivot. God doesn’t always work things out the way we anticipate.

Always leave room for God.

Saturday morning rolled around and lo and behold, God provided us with a group of young teenagers filled with energy and enthusiasm. Our Resources Coordinator, Zane, aka the Sizzle-King, organized tables and came up with a plan on how to best sort through each of the 300+ boxes of blessings.

The work went exceedingly well and we were able to pack boxes for our everyday kitchen needs in addition to finding specific food items included in each box that would be perfect for our Temporary Emergency Inclement Weather Service (we don’t know when yet, we just know to prepare. Winter is coming).

So yes, the nearly SIX TON BLESSING had ample food that we could use for our daily lunch meals and what we needed for inclement weather service. It was a provision we had been praying for—particularly the items we needed for inclement weather. Don’t miss this—God provided what we needed and what we had prayed for Him to provide. Keep paying attention—and we had enough left over to share with other ministry partners that needed an answer to their prayers!

It gets better…

Each Saturday, we try to debrief our volunteer groups to hear what they learned and to get a feel for how their experience will impact their lives going forward. Well, during the debrief with the young teenagers, the Holy Spirit made me aware of another crazy thing…

Before anyone at the church who provided this SIX TON BLESSING had packed a SINGLE box, God had laid it on the hearts of these young people to sign up and volunteer for that particular Saturday.

Yep. You’re reading that right.

Before God provided the blessing of food, He called the hands to receive it, process it, and re-palletize it.

When God delivers the harvest, He also provides the workers.

In that moment, my heart was full. God’s goodness overwhelmed me. The Lord’s generosity had blown me away mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

My late friend, Mark Jones, used to write a weekly column called “Worship As A Lifestyle”. Nearly a decade and a half after Mark and I first met, I am fully experiencing what that means on a daily basis. I hope Mark is able to witness from Heaven above what I am seeing God do here on Earth.

When God blesses you unexpectedly, thank Him.

I am thankful and grateful for how God has blessed me with His grace and mercy. The Lord has been good and kind to me. Every day, God gives me a front-row seat to witness His work. I witness His Word come alive every day. I see God work through His people to help His people.

Since I started working at OurCalling, the Dallas ministry that helps the homeless, I’ve experienced and witnessed numerous miracles that only God can do. Terri frequently reminds me that I need to write them down. And I plan to do that. For now, I hope this blogpost will encourage you as you seek to grow spiritually and walk with Christ.

Jesus is faithful.

I’m not going to lie…the past few weeks have presented their challenges and difficulties. Growing spiritually and walking with Christ is wrought with things that test our endurance and perseverance.

Overwhelmed and Overjoyed,

Rainer Bantau

The Devotional Guy™