“Please don’t do it,” I bit my lip.
“I have to,” Cliff said. “You did it once, too.”
Years ago, when we were pen-pals, a missionary friend of mine texted me from Nepal, “A little 4-year old girl here who’s deaf needs a cochlear implant. If she doesn’t get it soon, she’ll never speak- can you help?”
How could I? Yet, a voice within me asked, “Will you do this for Me?”
Days later, by a miracle, I found a surgeon to waive the operating fees. All I needed to do, was raise funds for her airfare. So, I sold my most valuable possession at the time- my triathlon roadbike.
But my world crashed. I did not anticipate losing my triathlon community, my weekly highlight, the hobby that pulled me out of my eating disorder and literally, saved my life.
Yet, I knew God was challenging me, “Will you always be willing to give up what means most to you, for what means most to Me?”
Weeks later, my tri friends pooled thousands of dollars together to buy me a brand new bike- whose model was uncannily named “Faith.”
Then years later, as we felt led to move over ten times in 8 years of marriage over 4 countries, Cliff sold his bike. My heart broke.
Yet, lately, I felt God ask me, “Will you buy Cliff a roadbike for his World Transplant Games triathlon race?”
I said yes in a heartbeat. Days later, we found the perfect 2nd-hand bike at a steal of a price.
Last week, on my birthday, as we rode together for the first time on our roadbikes in 8 years, I learnt this—
When we willingly give up what’s dearest to us, God often gifts it right back to us, better, in His time and way.
In Jim Elliot’s words, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
As we surrender, He supplies. As we give up, He gifts back. And that- makes the gift all the sweeter still. 🎁