the twenty-dollar miracle

a few days ago, pastor andrea preached on stewardship. not just of money, but of relationships. the subtitle of this second installment was "am i my brother's keeper?" she laid out a great paradigm of the 4 men who lowered a paralyzed man down through the roof of a house so that he could get to Jesus and be healed. of course she implored, how many of your friends would do that for you? would you do it for them? are we bearing each others burdens when we see that there's a need? well at the end of the sermon she always gives a challenge. this week's challenge was just to ask God if there was a need to be met and if so, fulfill it. i had my answer before she asked the question, so that was more of a "confirmation e-mail" from God. a carless friend of mine recently started a new job and needed a loan on bus fare. so i just gave it to him... at least what i had of it. problem is, that left me relatively cashless. so i was like "*sigh* alright God, you told me to gift the cash, so i need you to take care of me here..."

it wasn't TOO scary. i was a bit more prepared for the threat of famine this time. after two incidents of no-money and no-food intersected at the same time last month, i made it my business to stock up fridge and freezer with sustenance in case of low cash flow. my gas tank was pretty much full, and if worst came to worst, i had a few spots of pocket change stashed away in a few accounts (not counting the bank of in-between-my-car's-seats). still, all of this amounted to some heavy insecurity. any unforeseen mild emergency, and i was gonna be pretty defenseless.

but thankfully God heard me hollerin'. i discovered via serendipity that someone had purchased a copy of my album you are here from the markwashere.com website. i didn't notice because for some reason hotmail filtered the purchase notice into my junkmail folder. but i checked my bank account and noticed money there that i had not expected. it was great. no sooner than i called for help, it was actually in my possession before i could get into the door of my house. people, that so rocks. everyday.

buh- buh- but wait! there's more!

i get up this morning and someone e-mailed me saying that they bought a copy of the CD from my church on Sunday and have been listening to it pretty much everyday to "get going". i was amazed. i was like. this is great! and i didn't even do anything to deserve it. she wants to buy another one immediately to give to a friend this weekend.

shush. i know we're only talking roughly $20 worth of miracle here. but when you're hard pressed to find 5? 20 is eligible for miracle status. see? it really does keep getting better. :)