"Whatever You Do, Don't Buy a Vacuum"

"When I was your age, I too wanted to go on the mission field right away," she began her story by telling me this. "A lot of people delay going to the mission field. They wait to get married, they wait to have kids, and before you know it they settle down and never end up going at all."

I don't want to be one of those people, and neither did she. 

"When I got a place of my own, I avoided buying a vacuum cleaner," she continued her story. She wanted her home in the United States to be a temporary place. She didn't want any attachments nor anything to tie her down. "If I got a vacuum, then that meant I would have to commit to cleaning the floors every week. But I didn't want to clean my floors week after week. I wanted to move overseas and be a missionary." 

Well, the floors got pretty dirty after a while, and this friend of mine was forced to go out and buy a vacuum cleaner one day. She kept it in a storage unit with some of her other more valuable possessions. 

Some time later, she went to her storage unit to find that it had been broken into. "They only stole one thing," she said, "and it wasn't any of my valuable things." With animated hands she exclaimed, "they took that vacuum!" 

"It was a sign from God. I sold my possessions, packed up everything I had left, and moved to the mission field." She looked me square in the eye and said, "Ashli, whatever you do, don't buy a vacuum."

I absolutely love this advice and the woman who shared it with me. The moral of the story is this: don't wait around to do what God has called you to do. Don't make commitments or plant roots in places that will keep you from exploring the life God has in store. Yes, I am trusting the Lord to provide me with a husband to be a partner in ministry, and I pray for a family of my own as well, but I can not risk waiting around because I will end up postponing the invitation that God has laid before me. I can't afford to buy that kind of vacuum. 

But just like in the story of my missionary friend, so also my dirty floors beckoned to be vacuumed, and I realized I could not put it off forever. As it turned out, my grandmother gave me a nice vacuum cleaner since I still couldn't bring myself to buy one. It did its job well, and I packed it up just a few weeks ago when I moved out of my apartment. 

When I moved, my goal was to get rid of as much of my stuff as possible so I could live simply and own practically nothing. I was able to find a new home for everything...except that silly vacuum. So I stuck it up in the attic and practically forgot about it. 

Until this week. 

In a conversation with a friend a few days ago, she joyfully shared with me how God has radically changed her life, freeing her from a devastating past and providing for her an abundant future. She now has a place of her own, a great job, and eyes full of hope. "I can feel the presence of God in my new apartment," she explained, "because I look around and see that everything - every piece of furniture - has been given graciously to me from people that I don't even know! God has literally provided everything I need." 

Her face beamed with thankfulness and delight in the provision of God. Without thinking about it, she added a quick byline. "I mean, the only thing I don't have is a vacuum cleaner, but I can live without that for a while, right?" 

She wasn't even asking for a vacuum, but I immediately knew exactly what I needed to do. 

I pulled that vacuum cleaner out of the attic, wrapped a little golden bow around the handle and put a tag on it that read, "For you. Because God is faithful to provide everything we need." 

I skipped out to my car after dropping off the vacuum cleaner, and I kept thinking about my missionary friend and her vacuum story. Now I have a vacuum story of my own. The vacuum wasn't stolen this time; it was given away freely, just as my heart has been freely given to the people of Burkina Faso. Now I am a free woman again - no more vacuum cleaner. Only one step closer to life in Africa! 

Lesson learned. Whatever you do, don't buy a vacuum cleaner. But even if you must, be sure to give it away. May nothing ever keep you from following Jesus to the ends of the earth.