Stewardship Lesson in an Unlikely Place

Printer from Google Images

I was reminded of stewardship in a very unusual way yesterday. At my internship, the Metro Volunteer Lawyers' copier was getting fixed by the copier surgeon. My poor supervisor wanted to take a bat to the thing like the guys in Office Space, but that would make its problems much worse!! 

After reading the Intern Notebook, I realized I could use the CLS copier in the Volunteer room. We do that as a last resort because the CLS volunteers and employees get first priority for that one. 

So there went little me into the volunteer room with a giant stack of court documents to the CLS copier. As I v-e-r-y carefully fed them into the copier, I said, "Oh, please be nice, copier, you're not mine!" meaning, CLS would be mad if I broke their copier. 

Suddenly I realized I was sort of a steward of their copier. I'm a steward of MVL's stuff too because I'm a volunteer, but I felt an extra sense of 'I need to be careful because I don't normally have rights to this machine while I'm with MVL.' 

As I copied the court documents, God and I got into a discussion about stewardship. Do I treat what He gives me as carefully as I treated the CLS copier, or do I just assume He will fix something if I break it, or do I think, "No, that's mine." I took a Dave Ramsey class with Boaz and of course I thought about my finances. When I become a paralegal, will I just treat them like God will keep giving me more, or will I be careful with them like I am learning to be careful with my student loan refund? Will I think, "Oh, I can fix it because it's mine, or will I be careful because it's God's?" More importantly, will I continue to be grateful to God for what He has given me? Just as I was grateful CLS had allowed in their rules that MVL staff and volunteers could use their copier when ours was down, I have to be grateful for what God gives me because it's a gift, yet it is ultimately His. 

Little lessons can come from very strange places :) 

And yes, in case readers were wondering, I was able to copy all the court documents yesterday :D :D 

Ruth and Boaz: Not quite happily ever after?

I was being a dork last night and looking up "Ruth and Boaz marriage" mainly to see if there were any blogs of that same nature. Well, there were no blogs (as of yet ;) but there were a bunch of articles on Ruth and Boaz. Many of them referenced this article which was an article from 1906 on Jewish history.  

Picture of Boaz and Ruth from the internets

Apparently after Ruth and Boaz tied the knot, the story didn't end with: "And they lived happily ever after." because Boaz died the day after his wedding according to the above article. 

Wait... What? 

According to the article, Ruth was 40 and Boaz was 80. So the exertion needed to make Obed very well could've made him very... dead. 

That would leave Ruth and Naomi once again alone. They'd have access to all of Boaz' assets after that, but still, Ruth and Naomi would have raised Obed by themselves. 

The book of Ruth ends with Naomi praising God. Reading that in the context of Ruth being widowed a second time makes that statement more poignant. Though their kinsman-redeemer was physically gone, God gave them Obed and a house where they could raise him. God provided for them in Boaz' field. And out of Boaz and Obed's line, the true Redeemer of the world would be born. 

Because this story isn't just about Ruth and Boaz, but about Christ, it does end happily ever after. 

When dorks visit

Warning: this post is epically sappy

So Boaz visited me today at ACC. He visited me before, but today I was in class 10 minutes early paralegal-nerding out with friends when the instructor called me. I looked up and saw his cute sweet face and his Boaztically fantastic self filling the doorframe.

Yeah.

Katie

Was

Blushing.

I went out into the hallway and epic giggling and blushing and hugging commenced.

We are sharing portions of our lives already and that's so cool! I've visited him at his workplace and he's stopped by ACC several times now. The desire to make the other one gush in happiness is mutual and that is way cute!

Yet our relationship isn't built solely on gushy cuteness, but on Christ. We serve each other and love each other because Christ loved us first :):):):):)

The epic cutesy is an added blessing! Heeee heeeee heeeee!

The most Epic worship night!

On Saturday my sweet Boaz and I went to the Burning Lights Chris Tomlin concert at Red Rocks!!! It was EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boaz and I holding a flag we waved during the song... "White Flag"

Kari Jobe opened and I turned into a GIANT TEAR DROP when we sang "You are for me" because God used that song to encourage me during my post grad school job search.

Reminiscing and crying in a good way were the themes of the night for me.

I "grew up" listening to Chris Tomlin in that I spent the first 10 years of my Christian life rocking out to "Forever", "Not for us", Holy is The Lord", "Indescribable", and How Great is Our God" :) oh yes, and Our God is Greater. Yeah. Chris Tomlin songs rocked the Summitview Rock Worship Nights where I unashamedly rocked my FACE for Jesus :):)

When we sang those very songs - live - with Chris Tomlin leading us in worship, my Boaz's coat got a little wet from a lot of tears leaking out of my little eyes. I remember singing those songs in joy wen I was happy and when I was geeking out about God as Creator, and I remember singing these songs to praise God through grief, loss, and wrestling with my past.

As I praised God at Red Rocks while standing next to (and dancing with) my Boaz, I squeaked and eeeked realizing this was one giant Worship Night! Instead of Travis rocking Summitview, Chris was rocking the Denver Metro area. Yet they were the same: two very talented worship leaders drawing a large crowd of people closer to God by ROCKING OUT REALLY LOUDLY! Chris Tomlin called the front the "praise pit" and I giggled because we and the mosh pit during Rock Worship Nights.

As Chris Tomlin and Kari Jobe led us in worship I sang, danced, eeeked, and cried praising God for who He is and how He has refined me by bringing me closer to Him from that very first Rock Worship Night until now.

You never stopped loving us
No matter how far we run
You never give up on us
All of Heaven shouts

Let the future begin!

I feel alive
I come alive
I am alive
on God's great dance floor

-Chris Tomlin "God's great dance floor"