A little over a week ago I committed to say nothing but yes for two weeks. Yes to every inquiry. Yes to every need. Yes to my kids and my wife. Yes when it didn’t make sense.
It has been amazing.
Here’s what happens when we say yes:
People are blown away.
I received an email from a youth leader. While at our camp, one of his kids had hurt himself doing something he shouldn’t have and had to go home early. The leader wrote, “He will be fine, and the injury was his own fault. His mom did ask me if she could get a refund, since her son didn’t get to experience the weekend. I can’t imagine that you would, but I have to ask so I can give her an answer.”
Game on. It was like a softball lobbed right over the plate. I can’t imagine that you would… So I responded, “Hi David, I was sorry to hear of his injury. I will ask registration to issue a full refund for him.”
And not more than a minute later, his response, “Wow, thanks. That is completely above and beyond. I would think she would be happy with some pro-rated amount too, perhaps 75%, or a flat $100. Thanks again. She will be thrilled.”
That’s exactly what we were going for. Our first priority was for this student to have experienced a full weekend at camp: the worship, great teaching, shared experiences with David and his peers. And if that couldn’t happen, then why not send him home happy. Why not exceed mom’s expectations? Why not do something that made one of our partners say wow?
God has space to move.
Early last week I had the opportunity share the challenge to just say yes with our entire staff. I was excited to hear their responses, but I wondered if our guests would really notice any change.
On Sunday at lunch a youth pastor approached our camp director in the dining hall. He was just finishing up a weekend with his youth group at our Winter Teen Retreat. Andy, our camp director, knew this group had done a special event the night before that required our staff to go out of their way, to serve them.
So Andy asked how it had gone. They youth pastor gushed. He told about how the lights automatically turned off at just the right moment, just when all their candles were lit. It was like someone was hiding in the hall by the switch. But no one was. It was a God thing… they went off at just the right moment because of a pre-programmed timer.
Then he paused and said to Andy, “I’ll try to tell you this without weeping.” There was a tear in his eye. “I’ll try to get through it without crying. All your staff seemed to have an extra measure of grace.” And then the kicker: without prompting, he continued, “Never once this weekend did we ever hear the word no. It was always yes, or we’ll figure out how to do that for you.”
He was clearly moved as he told specific examples about how our staff at the zipline had been so graceful. They squeezed him and his students in after the activity should have closed. They stayed longer to help him overcome his fears.
He talked about how our hosts went above and beyond to set up the special meeting space for his group to meet. “Because your staff so consistently said yes, it opened up the opportunity for God to work.”
We hadn’t told him about our little experiment. He made the connection himself. We said yes, and God worked during his weekend at camp. Wow.
What’s your story? How did it turn out when you said yes? #justsayyes