Last Sunday I was sharing about a situation at a Tim Horton’s, where the new girl was not able to do the outside clean up duty because of an injury, and the manager asked for a volunteer from the other employees. No one else volunteered. Finally the manager picked one, and that one was not happy, she went out reluctantly.
I shared this as an example of an opportunity at work where a Jesus-follower could demonstrate the humility of Jesus by quickly volunteering to take the lowest, menial job, without grumbling or complaining. What I actually asked was, if there was a Jesus-follower there, what could they do to serve Jesus in that situation? One person who answered said what I was looking for, to volunteer to do it themselves.
Ahh, but one person who didn’t speak up, but wanted to answer, did speak to me later in the week and pointed out that there was a Jesus-follower there, that I could have volunteered to do it….
Ouch!!! Here I was telling people how THEY could follow Jesus, and I missed an opportunity myself. I never even thought about this possibility. Talk about convicting.
The Lord used this person to point the finger back at myself and to ask, are you prepared to step up and serve others for me? Thank You Lord, for convicting me. Thanks Richard for being the voice of God to me!
Hi Norm,
I read your blog entry regarding the Tim Horton’s situation.
I have been thinking about this a lot myself. I may have been the one God used to make you aware of the other possibilities to serve, but I can’t help to feel hypocritical, as I would NOT have gotten up to volunteer to pick up the garbage either.
I would think that if you or other Jesus-followers were walking into Tim Horton’s and saw a girl limping around the parking lot, picking up trash, that we might stop and give her some assistance. This is the type of situation that I see as being a Jesus-follower or not. Most of us would still: look, maybe pause, but probably walk on by, glad that we don’t have a job picking up trash.
If we saw anyone else picking up the trash, with no physical ailments, we could think that they are doing a good job, and that a bit of hard work is good for a teenager.
So does being a Jesus-follower mean that we have to stop at every situation, or step into every situation, that may lack the enthusiasm of a Jesus-follower by its participants?
If the injured girl was sent out, that is where the injustice would be, and to then step in would make us and Jesus proud of our actions.
I don’t think that you have to be hard on yourself for not volunteering in that situation, to rescue everyone with a less than glamorous job. And you don’t know that that person, in hind sight, may have seen the value of the hard work. (Stretch.) We don’t know how God works in other people’s lives to build their character.
I don’t think it is humanly possible for us to fix every problem we see, but the more aware we are of the opportunities to serve, and to not let them all go by, the more we demonstrate Jesus’ love in this world.
Richard