Share Hope: The Power of Two Pennies
As God brings us through the various trials of life, He also provides us with opportunities to use our sorrow as a platform for sharing the hope of Christ. In this series, Hope Moms share the ways they have been able to share hope with others as they have walked through the grief of losing a child. How has God uniquely equipped you to use your story to share hope with others? Share your story with us HERE
I sat in a faded, pin tucked, grey chair in the corner of my bedroom just a day after my husband, Kevin, and I had just found out the child I was carrying, our first child, would not live once born. As I sat there, I typed the final words to my first blog post. Words filled with pain, filled with hope, filled with desperation for people to pray for us as we embarked on this journey of carrying our first daughter to term, celebrating her life, and somehow preparing to say goodbye to her.
I clicked “post” and shut my computer.
At the time, I had been in full time Christian ministry for nearly 12 years. This meant that my days were spent meeting with women and talking with them about the good news of Jesus Christ, the hope we have in Him, and how they can know Him and walk with Him. I didn’t know how I could continue to engage in work that required so much emotional energy when all of a sudden I was not only so depleted, but spiritually on edge. What did I have to offer these women God had put in my life when I was desperate to know with greater depth the very truths I so confidently could share just a week before?
I was quickly reminded of a story I loved—the story of the widows offering in Mark 12.
“A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He [Jesus] said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.’”
-Mark 12:42-44 (NASB)
My confidence in my job had ebbed and flowed, but never before had I felt so empty, so inadequate—as if I had utterly nothing to offer those God had called me to minister to. All I had now was my pain, my brokenness, my fears, and my questions. They were my two pennies. And when I clicked “post” on that little blog post, I was simply offering a piece of my brokenness that I had little notion of how God would multiply.
The next day, as I opened my computer still sitting in the sorrow and shock of the news that our daughter would not live, I noticed that it had been viewed thousands of times and shared hundreds of times. I wondered how God was going to take the simple offering of my pain and multiply it. So I continued to offer the little I had, on blog posts, to the women I would meet with, in emails, and virtually anywhere I would go. I showed up, offered my brokenness, and somewhere in the middle of the pain God began to multiply my offering in ways I could never have imagined that day, now nearly six years ago, when I first clicked “post.”
During that time I often came back to the story of the widow with two pennies and a quote by a woman named Ruth Stull. Stull says, “If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it’s because pieces will feed a multitude while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad.”
Long before I stepped into the season of darkness and loss, I prayed that if my life were to be broken that He would allow the pieces to feed a multitude. I surely did not anticipate how He would answer that prayer.
After the diagnosis of our first daughter, I continued to meet with women, share my grief, and blog through the celebration of her life, the pain of her death, and then in a shocking turn, the life and death of my second daughter also. God has multiplied my life in the midst of my pain and brokenness to the hundreds of thousands of people that began to follow our story, through a book that I just published about our story, to the women I speak with on stage at conferences, and to the women I sit across from as I offer them the same hope that has been given to me.
I simply offered my pain to the Lord to use as He would choose. He took my two pennies, what I thought was so insufficient for His work, and He allowed them to become the vehicle in which many more drew near to the hope He had written on my heart.
Perhaps it won’t appear as if offering your pain, brokenness, tears, and questions at the feet of Jesus could produce much fruit. But I imagine all of us will be astounded when we sit on the other side of His Kingdom come and discover all the ways God was multiplying our broken offerings—our two pennies—that felt like so little.
When I sat on that grey chair, I never intended or even hoped our story would give hope to so many. I never thought of what the simple invitation to let others into our story and pain could produce. My book is entitled, “Buried Dreams: from Devastating Loss to Unimaginable Hope,” and it tells the story of the loss of our two children and how God met me in the darkness. I held it in my hands for the first time just a few days after my first daughter, Sophie, would have turned five. I held it with mixed emotions. There was joy and wonder at what God had done in those five years, and immense sadness at the weight of what it cost me to live and share these words.
I imagine the widow who gave two pennies could have never imagined how her small offering would be multiplied into the lives of millions of people through the words of Jesus. And you and I cannot fathom how God will take our two pennies and multiply them for generations to come.
The offering of our pain can feel excruciating, and yet it is only excruciating in the short term. For when I have a view of eternity, I realize that God is not only allowing me to see glimpses of the redemption of my pain here, but is also pointing me to the reality that one day I will see the full redemption. One day, I will realize how gracious God was to even give me two pennies to offer Him, and how wonderful He is to allow my two pennies to be a small part of how He reveals His glory to His creation.
- Lindsey
Hope Mom to Sophie and Dasah
Lindsey lives in Orlando, Florida with her stud of a husband, Kevin. She has four beautiful children, two with Jesus and two in her arms today. She is the author of Buried Dreams: From Devastating Loss to Unimaginable Hope. You can find more of her writing on her personal blog at www.vaporandmist.com. You can also find her on Instagram at lindseydennis_.
Are you a writer who would like to join the blog team? Learn more and apply here.
Widget not in any sidebars
Got something to say?