Outlet Streams

We were new to North Carolina. I’d met a girl at church who asked me over for coffee. When I walked into her kitchen, sitting on the floor was the most precious nine month old with the most hair I’d ever seen! Parted and combed, a clone of his dad, he looked up at me with a smile. She introduced me and then told me that he was #3. Her second child died while she was giving birth.

She was in tears by the end of the story but then she dried them and said, “During that time I thought I was the only one who had ever lost a baby but since then, you have no idea how many women I’ve met who have lost one too. I’ve been able to share how God incredibly loved me during that time and brought me through it all. It has been so amazing.”

This was probably thirty years ago but it’s just as clear in my mind’s eye as the day it happened. She was the example Paul would have given for
2 Corinthians 2:3-7 had he lived in the 1970’s.

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

If we belong to Him, it is no longer about us. The retelling of stand up and shout “Glory!” moments or life in the pits, both are platforms for sharing His work in your life with others for the express purpose of bringing Him glory. Nothing should stop with just us.

Jesus loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life…so that…I can share this news with others.

A random embolism that hit her baby’s heart and caused it to stop opened a floodgate of doors to other women who had lost babies and were drowning in sorrow . She had entry to their hearts that I would never have and she used it to bring them to Him and to bring Him glory.

If you continue in this chapter, it says “it is God who enables us..to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us and he has identified us as His own by placing His Holy Spirit in us.” (vses 21-22)

Moving to chapter 2:14, “He (God) has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like sweet perfume.”

When we go through a trial, when we are the recipients of incredible blessing, all this is “so that” we can tell others what we’ve learned, what we’ve experienced, what we know to be truth. It is so that we can spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like sweet perfume. We are not supposed to be a Dead Sea. The Jordan River is the only water source flowing in. There are no outlet streams. So the wonderful water from the Jordan evaporates once it hits the Dead Sea and only dry salt is left. There is no life in the Dead Sea…hence the name.

David Platt told the story of a group of Sudanese Christians with whom he visited while in Sudan. They’d brought their Bibles to study with him. Once he began to talk, they never made eye contact again until he finished. They were writing down everything he said. It was not just for personal application, “what is Jesus saying to me in this passage.” It was to take home, translate, apply and then share with other people in their villages.

We sit in air conditioned churches in cushioned pews and absorb wonderful messages about God with our hands folded in our laps. Kind of like those sprayers in tanning salons. Stand in front of them and close your eyes and get sprayed a lovely bronze. We look good.

But this puts a whole new spin on it doesn’t it. Suppose when we read the Word, a book, an article or listen to a sermon we view it as information strategically planned for our hearing by God Himself. His goal is to grow us in our faith, increase our knowledge and our love for him, and enlarge our vision of who he is and how he is working today not only in our lives but the lives of those around us. Think he’d want to just put a stopper on all that? Fill ‘er up so I’m about to pop and then just take a seat and glow?

I don’t think so. I need an outlet stream. I need outlet streams.

I had an aunt that would knock on doors and when the resident answered would say something like, “Hello, if you died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?”

I would have said, “Thank you for asking,” and shut the door quietly and locked it and turned off all the lights, wouldn’t you?

But suppose you decided to stop by Panera for coffee. You smile at the lady next to your table when you sit down and said, “Hey, how are you?” Sitting alone, she smiles, tears up and said, “I’m ok. Kind of. My husband walked out last week.”

As it just so happens, ten years ago, your husband walked out on you and your four teenagers, which warrants a straight ticket to … I’m so sorry, I digress. But God…intervened in your life and met you in ways you never thought possible, healing your beat up heart, setting you on a straight path and nourishing your soul, meeting your needs…over and over and over.

Reckon why you picked the table next to hers. Who did that? God. What is the most wonderful gift you could give her? You could tell her how she can know Jesus and have a relationship with him. That he sat her right next to you. You could tell her how much he loves her, that he longs to cares for her just like he has cared for you and then tell her exactly how he cared for you.

You probably learned all this truth in your head growing up…in a Book. But it became real, it became truth that you could authenticate because when applied to life, to real life, it worked. It was so true.

That’s all he wants us to do. Notice he did not say, “and win them to Christ, sign them up for a Bible study, get a commitment, close the deal before you walk away!” Nope…He just said to spread the knowledge of His Son.

There is a “be careful” however, for this admonition. Through the years, I’ve heard a ton of stuff that my boys needed to hear, that my husband needed to hear…haven’t you?! I’ve almost knocked them over in my stampede to tell them what I just learned, what they need to hear as a word straight from God himself and he sent me to tell them they need to put this word into practice…now!

Not what I’m talking about. We need to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

There was a sweet spirit in my North Carolina friend. A quiet, sweet spirit born of sorrow and suffering. She had a tenderhearted, kind empathy toward those she knew did not know what she knew from experience. That was the key to their hearts and to the hearts of those God puts in our paths as well.