Three Things That Happen When God Moves

In 2011, we decided to organize the second City Impact Conference. We try not to talk about the first year because it was embarrassing.

I remember putting all of the conference expenses on my personal credit card because the ministry didn’t have any funds for conference expenses. It came down to the final week before conference was going to start. It was a Wednesday morning and my father came into the room and said, “I need your credit card, we don’t have any meat.” At the conference we gathered 800 volunteers to worship and serve in 20 outreaches in the inner city as our breakout sessions. Many of our outreaches depended on us cooking and serving 6,000 hot meals. Having no meat, three days prior to the conference, is a bit of a problem.

I remember hesitantly giving my dad the card, as I knew its limit. Nonetheless we absolutely needed to buy the meat. In less than one hour, I remember my father running into the conference room and throwing my credit card on the table. I knew the issue. We’ve reached the max. To my surprise, my father exclaimed, “You won’t believe what happened, Trader Joe’s just called and asked if we could use any of their refrigerated items because their freezers just broke down.”

At around 11pm that night, two huge trucks pulled up to our doors and six of us men began to unload an insurmountable amount of MEAT; tri-tip, ribs, filet mignon, chicken, new york strips, pork chops, anything and everything refrigerated EVEN yogurt, cheese, and milk.

THEN something began to take place, one of the guys began to complain about how late it was. One guy began to share how tired he was. Another guy began to grumble because we could only refrigerate the meat and there was no room left for the yogurt.  

Three years removed, the Trader Joes miracle at City Impact, has become infamous. But from this miracle, there are three things that I learned when God moves:

 

1. It’s hard to recognize when you’re in the middle of it but in the end tells a great story. We are so focused on the here and now that we forget to look up and see the big picture. What if your miracle wasn’t glamorous looking? What if your miracle was wrapped up in monotony or the mundane (two key training grounds for God’s people)?

 

2. It usually requires some effort on our part. Don’t get me wrong, God does the heavy lifting and the impossible stuff but when He moves, we need to move too. Ask Ludacris (bad hip hop analogy – I’m Chinese).  Remember the paralytic in the Bible? Jesus worked the miracle, but the miracle means he couldn’t beg anymore. He had to work.

 

3. Sometimes there’s collateral damage when God moves. Yes, the yogurt went bad and we threw it out. The key is not to complain about spilled milk (or spoiled yogurt), instead praise God for the tri tip.

 

Many times when we read about the Israelites, we grow frustrated with them. We get frustrated because they are grumbling and complaining while God is literally showering manna from heaven. The Old Testament is like that. It’s like viewing a painting from far off and making the judgment that the painting is hideous. The closer we get, we realize that it is actually a mirror. Ouch.

 

God gives us stories of the Israelites so that we can indeed get frustrated at them but to also realize, we are the same. He’s working miracles all around us. Our job is to be observant, thank God in the middle of it, and tell a great story at the end of it. Be encouraged today. It may not look glamorous but at least God listens, cares, and is near.