*** Here is one last blog post that I wrote for the IF:Amarillo blog. It's amazing to look back at these words I wrote after our first IF:Amarillo meeting and see that God accomplished exactly what we asked Him to do. We did have 500 women and God provided what we needed monetarily, right down to the penny. God is so, so faithful.
Last year I hosted an IF:gathering at my church Citychurch. I really wanted to go to Austin for the first IF:gathering, but I couldn’t logistically do that (i.e. no money for that in our budget.) On top of that, the tickets sold out in a matter of minutes (like less than an hour.) So when Jen Hatmaker posted her blog about IF:local, I was on it. I wanted there to be an IF:local in my city. So I decided I would host one. I put all the details together and kept it simple. I was a IF:one-man-band or planning, implementing, conference hosting woman. I had 12 ladies attend, and it was wonderful. But, here’s the thing. It was small.
A few months ago, I went to a meeting with 5 other ladies. These ladies were just ... I can’t even put words to it. They were IF ladies. I was so thrilled to be among them. We are planning this years IF:Gathering for Amarillo, and we are thinking BIG because God thinks BIG. God invented big.
On the way home from that first meeting, I was thinking about what we had just agreed to. We had decided on budget twice the size of a decent car loan and we had committed to hosting women by the hundreds. My brain doesn’t go to those kind of numbers on it’s own. To my detriment, I think in terms of what I can handle. How much can I bite off? What can I do?
Let me tell you that I’m flat, flat wrong.
I’ve got the wrong pronoun in those sentences. How different is the question when I replace I with He (as in the I Am, He?) How much can He bite off? Um. He baked that cookie. How much can He do? Well. He can, and He does.
I’m so excited to see what God does. I already know what I can do. Just read John 15:5, and it will tell you the harsh truth of “apart from me you can do nothing.” I get excited when I hear God is moving. I want to watch, but not only watch. I want to jump in. If God is moving, I want to grab on. Just like a toddler might “help” his dad move furniture. I want to grab a corner and “help.”
Do you get excited about God moving? If you do, then join in. Jump up and grab on. God isn’t going to put the load on you. He’s doing all the heavy lifting, but He lets us be a part of it. He’s that good and loving Father who knowingly looks down, and expresses His pride in our willingness to help and our willingness to go where He is going.
Come be a part of our BIG IF:Amarillo Gathering. If you haven’t registered, just go do it right now.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 ESV
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