Add Life to Your Life

This past month as been a whirlwind in the best way.

I had the amazing opportunity to serve alongside my friends who are the founders of a uniquely designed, ethically made clothing company.

A month ago they were offered the opportunity to take their online store to an on-site location in downtown Kansas City Missouri, and in a matter of a month we all worked together to ensure everything went off without a hitch leading up to the ribbon cutting ceremony that happened yesterday.

As I have had time to think and reflect on the time I’ve spent working alongside them I have come away with a golden nugget I wanted to share:

Do things & be around people who add life to your life.

Last night I shared with some friends my experiences I’ve had having panic attacks as a side effect from the PTSD I have incurred from the numerous car accidents I’ve been in. Someone asked me what it felt like to have a panic attack, and I described it as an experience that makes you feel like you’re gasping, trying to breathe, but you can’t. Your body is working against you, you feel like you’re going to explode out of your skin. At least that’s what it feels like for me.

And when I look at what causes my panic attacks I find that it’s stress induced as a result of overworking myself, refraining from taking breaks, and never relaxing or resting. I’m in an ongoing state of putting pressure on myself until I can’t function as a human, because I’ve been treating myself as a robot.

But one thing that I’ve learned this week is when I am on a mission that is greater than my personal financial gain, or filling my own cup, like how I felt through my contributions to my friends’ store, I felt so nourished with a zealous desire to work. My friends added life to my life. This type of work— mission centered work, overflowed my cup. I had the ability to be purposeful and also restful, I was able to balance myself with greater ease than I have felt in years.

In Genesis it talks about how God breathed life into Adam so he could live. And that sense of life that God breathed into Adam was breathed into me, which was a much needed spiritual reawakening. I had been so used to the daily grind for my own personal financial security and gain. And while there’s nothing wrong pursuing that, I found myself living a life as though I was simply going through the motions of living.

To me, living doesn’t mean you live to serve yourself. But rather you live to serve others so that they can also live. So that they too can have life breathed into them, to serve a purpose greater than themselves.

I remember how I used to feel when I’d come home from a Christian conference where I was so fired up and so passionate with the progress I made in my relationship with God in a matter of a weekend but it was a feeling that soon fizzled out. As all feelings do.

But this week, and the weeks that came before it, was different. It wasn’t based in my feelings. It was based in reality. A reality that God allowed me to be a part of.

As I worked I kept telling myself:

“The work we do today means someone gets to eat tomorrow. The work we do today means someone gets to be warm, who otherwise would be out in the cold.”

It’s mission minded work, every tedious detail is a part of a greater picture. Its the Gospel with skin on.

Regardless of how great the impact is, what you do and who you surround yourself with can either steal away from your life or add to an already overflowing cup.

I was blessed enough not to just have the circumstances of how I served to overflow my cup, but the encouragement and gracious attitudes of my friends who I served alongside helped reshape my perspective through their servant hearts.

We can’t do everything, but we can do everything we can.

My heart is so full.

I didn’t know how starved I was for purposeful mission-minded work until I was able to giddily ask at the end of the night after a very successful launch:

“How many people get to be warm tomorrow?!”

And then I remembered, while the numbers are important— Jesus left the 99 to look for the lost one.

So if it was 1 person that got to be fed and be warm— it was worth it.

This is only the beginning. And I can’t wait to to see what God does next.

(I know the successful launch of Pancho’s Blanket definitely clothed and fed more than 1 person, but if you want to stay up to date with all things Pancho’s Blanket head on over to their website at http://www.panchosblanket.com and Instagram @ panchosblanket so you can see what this amazing company is doing to help others!)