Does anyone else shop at Aldi's?

I love Aldi’s. It’s a simple kind of grocery store, stocked with all the basics. When I need bread and eggs, this is where I go. Plus, I love having ‘Peanut Delight’ brand peanut butter in my pantry…

One of Aldi’s unique quirks is its grocery cart system. Their carts are locked up, one behind another, in front of the store. To use one of their carts, you must deposit a quarter into the lock attached to the cart handle. The lock opens, and when you finish your shopping, you reconnect the lock and get your quarter back. This system is in place to save everyone money, by preventing lost carts and damage to parked cars, keeping Aldi prices low.

As I walked toward Aldi’s doors last week, there was a woman leaving the store with one paper bag’s worth of groceries in her cart. Standard Aldi’s etiquette would be to trade this woman a quarter for her cart, knowing that I’ll get my 25 cents back when I finish my shopping and reattach the cart to the holding pen by the door. This lady saw me walking up, eyeing her cart, and asked me if I’d like to take it. I said yes and extended my arm to hand her a quarter. She waved me off, picking up her paper bag and pushing the empty cart toward me.

“Are you sure?” I asked, trying to hand her the quarter once more.

She shook her head again, emphatically. “It’s a blessing, take it!” Then she walked away.

It’s a blessing. Take it. As I navigated Aldi’s aisles, picking up some cherry Toaster Tarts and L’oven Fresh wheat bread, I couldn’t stop her words from echoing through my mind. It’s a blessing. Take it.

How many times does God give me a blessing that I don’t want to take?

God is the source of all blessings, in every way. All the people in our lives, all our gifts and talents, all our possessions – all shapes and sizes, every good thing we have is from God. It’s the generosity of our Creator – the Creator who gave us the ability to bless others. In the book of Genesis, God tells Abram (before he became Abraham), “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Gen 12:2). We are blessed to become blessings to others.

But here’s where I can get hung up: My own sense of sinfulness, of shame over the ways I’ve failed, makes me feel so unworthy of God's blessings. Give it to someone else, I want to say. I don’t deserve to be so blessed. And how can you expect me to be a blessing to others? Look at all the ways I’ve messed up. Come on, God, wouldn’t you rather reward someone who has earned it? Someone worthy?

Or maybe you’ve felt like this: sometimes I reject God's blessings because I feel like I already have too many. I have plenty to eat, money to pay the bills, a great family, incredible friends, the opportunity to travel, gifts and talents. Why so much good stuff for one little person? Spread it around! There are times that I feel beyond blessed. So many others need God’s blessings more than I do...

Another way I’ve been known to reject God’s blessings: Maybe they don’t come the way I expect them to. I ask for one thing, I receive three others – but I get hung up on the fact that those three don't include the one that I wanted. I get specific in my desires, and specifically miss the abundance of blessings that I receive. I fail to trust that maybe God knows better than I do what exactly it is that I need.

It’s a blessing. Take it.

Deuteronomy 28:1-2 – “And if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

The thing about a blessing is that it’s so easy for us to miss it. Various forms, different people, our own feelings of unworthiness, unexpected times and places – we miss it. And when we pass up the blessings God gives to us, we also pass up the opportunity to bless others.

All these excuses I have to reject God's blessings - well, they just don't have any strength. Following God (the calling we all share) is going to lead to blessings, blessings that make each one of us a blessing to someone else. These opportunities to be generous, sharing in the abundance of our loving God, are all around us. 

In God, there are blessings. God is never outdone in generosity. Sometimes it's as simple as a free cart at Aldi's, sometimes more. Take it - then share.