I’m sitting in a coffee shop. Conversations swirl around me along with the scent of espresso. I can overhear words from students, mothers, employees. They talk of their days. Some laugh. Others have faces full of seriousness. And yet they all seem to have this in common: they want what they’re doing to matter and sometimes they’re not sure it does.
I look to the opposite wall of the cafe and I see it’s lined with jewelry, purses, scarves and other lovingly handmade art by women who live far away. Women who want what they do to make a difference too. Women who are finding their way out of poverty and who have placed the work of their hands and hearts in boxes to send it here to us.
{here’s a little video about the coffee shop where I’m writing. If you can’t see it below, click this link.}
And it strikes me that what these women have done is a brave thing: they have released their work into the world and trusted that it will be received. They’ve believed without seeing that someone will find value in it. They have offered what they have to contribute without any expectation of seeing the result.
What they do is a beautiful act of faith.
I can learn from it. Every person in this coffee shop can too. And maybe so can you. Because we all come to that point in our daily lives when it’s time to hit “publish” on the post, or send the child off to college, or turn in the project. And we don’t know what will happen next. We can hope and pray but ultimately we can’t control. It’s easy at that point to hold fast to what we’ve created. Isn’t it safer with us? What if no one receives it, loves it, cherishes it like we do?
Yet if we wait for proof that what we’ve done is worthwhile then the world will never receive what God intends to give through us. First comes faith, then comes sight. And sometimes that doesn’t even happen in our lifetime. Can we let go anyway?
Yep.
Thank you for not holding on too tightly.
Thank you for opening your hands and heart.
Thank you for believing what you do matters and that we need it.
Because we do.
XOXO
Holley Gerth
