Give it away, give it away, give it away now!

If The Bridge ever does want to have a Free Yard Sale, I'm confident that it would be a huge blessing, maybe not a huge monetary blessing, but still a huge blessing. This blog isn't directly about our scripture, but maybe it's about the result of some of the messages I've gotten out of the scripture and the result of some things God has placed on my heart lately. Anyway, this is my story about giving away some of the "stuff" I've accumulated through the years...

Well, as Hugh said to me Saturday morning, in the words of the Red Hot Chili Peppers... "Give it away, give it away, give it away now!"

Over the last few years I've made some efforts to clean out the house, get rid of stuff I don't need. It's been really really slow. Sometime in the last year, God got involved in the effort. It changed from just being something I wanted to do, to something I felt God telling me to do. It was still really slow. I sorted through some stuff but still had it sitting in our house for months. Then a couple weeks ago God kind of lit a fire under me. I felt like he was telling me "really Kristy, give that stuff away and give it away now! don't wait til you think all the details involved are perfect, make it a priority, sort through as much as you can, and give it away now!"

So, for once, I put all I had into doing what God told me to over the last couple weeks. It often seemed silly and hopeless. And there was stuff that I couldn't imagine letting go of. I just wished someone else would come along, do something with it for me and make it all easy. But I asked God for help every day and I did my best. Our living room was piled with junk, some of the bedrooms too. The time came to give it all away. I asked John if he thought it would be ok to sit in the Bridge parking lot and try to give it away. And he said it was. So Saturday morning I got up with the plan of loading as much as I could into my truck, putting up a sign that said "Free" and giving it away.

All kinds of excuses for not doing it crossed my mind... it won't fit in my truck, someone I know will see me and laugh, people in businesses around there won't appreciate someone looking like they've opened a thrift store on the side of the road, it looks like it might rain, no one will want this stuff because it's junk, I'll give away something I love and regret it... so many excuses. But I loaded up and went anyway.

I still don't know how it all fit in my truck. I'd say God was most definitely involved there. It had started to rain as I headed over the mountain into Huntsville, but by the time I got to the Bridge it had mostly stopped. I set up a table and taped together my "Free" sign and started getting stuff out, wondering if anyone would stop. They did! Some people told me their names. I wish I could remember more names. The first to stop was a girl probably around my age. She joked that she was supposed to be having her own yard sale but had canceled it because of the rain... and now she was taking home my junk. I had a lot of kitchen items and linens that were duplicates from Hugh and I combining households. That stuff went QUICKLY to the first couple people who stopped. They seemed very happy to be getting some sheets, a crockpot, etc. At one point a handful of people had stopped all at once. I was still unloading stuff and I put out a bag of clothes... this one guy just took the whole bag. I was kinda surprised but didn't really think much about it. Then I put out a bag of stuffed animals... and another guy took that whole bag. That one I was really tempted to stop... I wanted to stop him and say "wait, I loved those stuffed animals, my brother and I both did, you can't just take the whole bag and toss them in the back of your truck!" But I knew it wasn't right to stop him. I just smiled at him. He seemed really thankful. That made it better. I knew part of what God wanted me to do is let go. It's just stuff! But it's still hard. One guy named James stopped and thoroughly looked through everything. He kinda reminded me of my dad, kinda quirky, very nice. He talked to me for quite a while. He took some stuff that would have been extra hard to give away, but he kinda won me over so it was easier to see it go into his hands. A girl stopped who said her house burned down about a month ago. A lot of my clothes that were too small for me fit her perfectly. She was really nice and fun to talk to too. She even left and came back with a friend. That was cool too. I met a little boy that looked thru everything and picked out things for his grandma and his cousin... he seemed like he had a very generous and loving heart. He picked up a necklace and said he wanted to see what it looked like on me. I put it on and he said I should keep it because it looked pretty on me. Some of these people just totally captured my heart. People took all kinds of stuff, all kinds of nicknacks. I even had a "TrapperKeeper" from elementary school that someone took. Old coloring books. Little cat statues. I'm still way too attached to my stuff. But it was a better experience than I could have ever imagined. God was right there with me and I am still amazed and thanking him. I don't even begin to know how to thank him. Our house looks so clean now. I met some cool people. And hopefully people have some things they might have needed, and some things that will just be for fun.

Ok, now for the only part that was kind of a bummer... I confess, I only mentioned the church to a few of the people. I've always been shy about doing that kind of thing, telling people to come to church, etc. And I've never really felt like God was calling me to improve there. I kind of felt like he was ok with me being shy. This time was different. It's not that I feel guilty or that he really convicted me saying "kristy you should have told everyone to come to church!" He just kind of showed me that I met some great people, and they went on their way, and I could have done more for them. Maybe it would have been nice to see them again. Inviting them to church would maybe give me that chance. Or maybe it would have just been a nice thing to do for a nice person, telling them they are welcome at our church. I wish I had done what I could to help them know the God I know. It wasn't my focus for the day, and I think God was ok with that. But I like how he can still point out that I could have done more there. I was doing what he asked me to do and he used that opportunity to show me more that can be done. :-)

Anyway, I think I've rambled on about this enough. It was an amazing experience. God is so great. Thanks to God. Thanks to The Bridge. And thanks to all the people who stopped. :-)