“Spurs”

On Valentine’s Day, I had the privilege of speaking at a most unforgettable women’s event.  The group I spoke to started out as one for widows but, after the community saw what a special endeavor it was, the group expanded to include other women as well.  We met in a private room in a restaurant where each table setting was adorned with a single red rose (and a red velvet cupcake).  Much about this gathering impressed me, not the least of which was who actually made such a gathering possible.  This group is a ministry from a local church, a ministry sponsored by the men in that church.  In fact, these men do many such things for the women there as they want the women to feel special–to feel loved.

The men’s group at this church calls themselves the “Spurs,” because their heart’s desire is to spur others on to good works in this world.  I so love this model for church, for service, for the gospel of our Christ.  Jesus was a man who was all about others–he lived for them and he died for them (and resurrected for them too!).  And it seems these church men understand the concept of pouring their lives out for other people; and these women, some most especially, really needed to be poured into, really needed to feel some love.  One of these women came up to me after the event and told me her husband had just passed on in December; so, needless to say, her grief was more than a little fresh.  Another woman there told me her beloved twenty-something year old boy had passed on this past summer, and he was not the first child she’d lost–and he was the last child she had.  And this woman is the one who actually leads this group, the one who shepherds them.  She’s the one who, in the midst of her own on-going and intense grief, chooses to spend her time spurring other women on to good works.

Then, there was a woman not from this actual group but from my Bible study.  She had chosen to drive a distance to be there at this event just to support me, just so there’d be someone in the crowd whom I knew.  She had come to “spur” me on.  As she and I do not have a long history, I was more than a little surprised that she would do this, especially since I know how very much she has going on in her own life.  She had a baby very recently and she has a son, close to my daughter’s age, who is very, very ill.  Her precious boy, who simply radiates our Christ and who deals with life down here in such a way that he spurs many on to good works, has had epilepsy since before he was two years old, epilepsy that does not respond to medication.  All of this, yet she showed up–another example of making life about others.

The story I spoke about with these women was that of the Samaritan woman at the well–a story from Scripture that really does embody this others-focused mentality and shows us how deeply we’re known and loved.  As this story starts out, Jesus is sitting alone and is most probably hot, thirsty, hungry and tired.  Yet, he engages with a woman from a group of people with whom other Jewish men would not have chosen to engage; and through the truth of who he is and how he loves, she is spurred on to good works indeed.  She chooses to take her new knowledge of him home to her people and to then bring her people to where he is; and then these people choose to believe too and are spurred on just as she was.

This lovely event that God saw fit to make me a part of has served to remind me of the domino effect of life here.  We’re all doing something even when we feel like we’re doing nothing.  We’re all either inspiring others to goodness or we’re not.  And we live, even when our lives are most full of pain, for Goodness’ sake–for God’s sake.  We were simply made to spur others on to good things because we were made in God’s image–and that’s what God does.  He does good, and he’s the only one who never, ever fails to do good.  And when we recognize his goodness and respond to it, I’ve seen time and time again how God multiplies it.  Yes, he spurs us on like no other so we can do the same for one another!