An Average Life

An Average Life

My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19, NIV

Shivering against the cold, I hugged my toddler against me as I headed toward my sister Kendra, who was standing in the shadowed doorway of our local homeless shelter. Together, we walked up the stairs and headed into a hallway that was brightly lit by newly hung chandeliers, the smell of paint and varnish assaulting our noses.

We were just two weeks out from dedicating the newly refinished women’s floor at Place of Hope, and I surveyed the dressers and mattresses still crowding the floor, the tarps laid down. The unfinished rooms held a silent, waiting quality. Even as we chose prints for the walls and dragged toys into the children’s room, I knew that in a few weeks the place would look and sound wildly different, as the fourteen rooms of the newly named Katie’s Wing became home to women and their families.

Despite the disarray, I marveled over how my sister Katrina’s legacy was evolving yet again. The foundation created when she passed away from breast cancer was now able to help fund the creation of a wing that would change the lives of countless women. Eleven years ago when my family said yes to God in creating the foundation, we had no idea that it would go to help homeless women, many of whom have escaped domestic-assault situations or have been victims of human trafficking.

Katrina would probably be astonished to see the legacy that has emerged since her passing, because in her mind, she lived an average life. “Come and see what the Lord has done in this average housewife’s life,” she once wrote in her journal to her children. That’s how she saw herself, as average, nothing special—but other people saw her as so much more. But now the Lord is using her legacy to meet so many needs.

At the dedication of Katie’s Wing, my brother-in-law Jim echoed Katrina’s words: “Any family could do this,” he said. “With the Lord’s help, any family could do something like this.”

No matter your circumstances or your background, God can use you. When we rely on God’s riches, he will meet our needs and the needs of others as we seek to show kindness.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

As you do an act of kindness today, pray that God would meet both your needs and the recipient’s needs.