He's so much fun.

so i was supposed to work on friday at S-Town. all day long. supposed to work. eight freaking hours. eight hours is fine when i open, because i'm out by 1:30. but any other eight hour shift just bites because it sucks away my entire day.

well, i didn't even ask Him, but the Lord was so gracious. my manager called on thursday and said that she had gotten someone from another store to cover most of my shift on friday so that i could attend the annual starbucks Open Forum. i only had to officially work for three hours. and THEN when i woke up on friday, i called in and didn't even have to work THOSE three hours because there were more than enough people at the store. so, not only did i get to sleep in on a day in which i was supposed to wake up early AND work for eight hours, but i got to sleep in and THEN go to a fun non-work event that i got paid for as if i was working. such a wonderful surprise!

so the REASON my manager wanted me to go to the Open Forum (which i did not know initally) was because, apparently, the regional managers wanted to recognize Bobby and i for saving the choking customer (let's be clear that i didn't actually do any saving, but i tried, so i guess in starbucks land, i still get a gold star). which was cool in and of itself. i mean, even though i've told a ton of people the story, i was not at all expecting any sort of award or anything... especially not at such a big event.

so as i'm driving to this deal, i'm listening to a teaching on being a biblical "seer" in the car. long story short, the teaching was awesome, and i finished it asking the Lord to help me hear Him better and encounter Him in a more supernatural way. i long for that. anyway...

the Open Forum is a yearly convention-like thing, where a bunch of vendors and reps from different parts of starbucks set up booths and talk with partners (read: s-bux employees) about their areas of business. for instance (my personal favorite), HPR. i forget what it stands for (it may not even be the right acronym), but they are the company that delivers all of our pastries. they had a bunch of samples of not-yet-released food items for us to try. it was my favorite booth because i love to eat, in case you were wondering.

so they served us lunch and let us loose to discover all the hidden things of starbucks that we did not know. they had a raffle ticket booth set up where they were selling raffle tickets for a dollar apiece to earn money to buy a playground for a guatemalan elementary school. you might think my heart is made of stone when i tell you that i don't really care much about a playground for an elementary school. i mean, i care about the kids, but i could certainly think of some more urgent fundraising causes... anyway, all this to say that i didn't really care about the cause, and the prizes weren't really anything i was too interested in. so i wasn't going to buy any tickets.

but, as the moving from booth to booth started to wind down, i was about ready to leave the room when i felt Him urge me to buy a raffle ticket. it wasn't a "Thus saith the LORD" kind of moment or anything, but it was an impression. i only had a dollar in my purse, so i could only buy one. i put the ticket in my pocket and forgot about it.

the we were ushered into another room where they had the spelling beee and awards ceremony.

the spelling bee was a competition between two teams representing two different districts, and the score ended up being a tie (disappointing) because all parties had a list of the words that were going to be used in the spelling bee beforehand... GENIUS.

then came the awards ceremony. coffee house experience award, partner of the quarter, manager of the quarter, etc., etc. there were way too many standing ovations and people crying for receiving awards. in my heart i kind of laughed at how emotional some of the managers were for being recognized (**sniff**..."none of this could ever have been possible without... my partners! you guys make every day new and exciting!"). but the Lord humbled me when they called Bobby and i up at the very end, and i started to feel a little teary-eyed myself walking up to the stage, seeing five hundred people stand for us and clapping and saying "thank you", even though they've never met us before. it was touching. sorry for making fun, i won't do it again.

anyway, after the awards they read off the raffle drawing winners. i started to think about my ticket again and talk to the Lord about it. i think i said something to the effect of, "Lord, you know this stuff is crap, right? i mean, i could give it away if i win something, but who is going to want a starbucks windbreaker?" then, at the very end, they were reading the winners for two prizes that i didn't pay any attention to at the raffle table earlier. travel vouchers. oh, well... "Lord, i guess that's kind of a cool deal. maybe a missions trip or something?" they read off the number for the first voucher. not mine. they read off the second number for the second voucher. not mine. but evidently there was a mixup or the second person wasn't there or something, because they drew a third time. 1-3-0-4-7-9.

it was my number.

i won! i started to tremble as i went up to claim the prize, because i knew the Lord was all over this. i mean, i know i hear Him speak often, but many times i don't find out that it was Him until way down the road... just because usually His voice is so faint... a whisper in the heart that is so close to my own thoughts that it is just barely discernable. but this, it was so... tangible. not His voice (it was still faint this time), but the result of listening to and obeying Him. i didn't give one lick about the raffle tickets, didn't care about the prizes, didn't even KNOW about the travel vouchers, but i heard Him and now have $500 to spend on a trip.

even now as i type, i feel Him impressing on my heart that this is how His kingdom works. when we will step out in just a tiny dollar-size amount of faith believing that He is speaking and will speak and will move on our behalf, He SO meets us in our weakness with a five-hundred fold return on that tiny amount of faith we had. i mean, my example is so bad anyway, because it wasn't like buying the raffle ticket took much faith at all... the ticket cost only a dollar, and no one would have known that i thought the Lord told me to buy it if i didn't win anything. i didn't really have anything to lose... but i feel the Lord say, "that's kind of the point. you see what I do with the very little you give Me in obedience? how much MORE will I meet you in your weakness when you step out even further in faith and trust Me with more?"

wow. okay. point taken. You can be trusted. i have no idea for what or whom the voucher will be used for, but i feel like the very nature of how i won it requires me to be a very good steward of how i use it. it's kind of an adventure... figuring out what the Lord wants to do next...

He's so much fun! and He speaks today. ask Him to teach you how to hear His voice... and then listen.