Clean, Dry, Towels

By DiAne Gates –

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations” (KJV Psalm 100:4-5).

Roberto joined our Vacation Bible School In The Park in Houston, Texas. This tall and lanky sixth grader’s enormous dark chocolate eyes spilled over with sadness that made him appear older than his twelve years. But Roberto was the first to arrive each day for VBS.

Now, summertime in Texas arrives the day after Easter, so by the time school was out and Bible School began the temps were scorching by 10 AM. Add humidity to the equation and it was a recipe for wring-and-droop. What I would have given for a clean towel to mop the sweat that dripped from every pore.

The week progressed and I learned this young man was a budding artist. He had five brothers and sisters. Their family lived in an apartment complex and shared a bathroom with two other families. Paper, paint, and brushes for Robert were not on this family’s shopping list.

The last day of Bible School we had a picnic for the children, complete with food, games, and gifts. Roberto’s gift was paper, paints, brushes, and socks—three pair of athletic socks. Those sad brown eyes turned into sparkles when he exclaimed “thank you” over and over again. Would any of our children be exuberant over a small sack of inexpensive gifts like those? Probably not. Hugs were shared and we boarded the bus back to our church in the suburbs.

I arrived home hot and grimy. The first thing on the agenda? A bath. Filling the tub to the top, I slid into the refreshing water and Roberto’s family—sharing a bathroom with more than fifteen people—flashed through my mind. Face to face with his reality made an indelible mark on my heart.

A tornado had ripped across town the week before and many of those folks were displaced from their homes—no personal soak time for them either—and no clean, dry, towels.

I pulled a fluffy towel from the rack, inhaled the scent of fabric softener, and was ashamed of my ingratitude. Like those lepers Jesus healed who forgot to say thank you, I never thought to say thank you for my bathroom, the water, or the clean, dry, towels.

Surrounded by a mountain of provisions from my Lord God and I failed to thank Him for running water, a pantry filled with food, plates to eat on, a car to drive, grass to run through, flowers to enjoy, family, friends—the list of blessings goes on and on. For goodness sake, a washing machine to do the laundry. The majority of people all over this earth lack these conveniences. God has blessed my family beyond measure and I haven’t even thought to thank Him. How about you?

I learned from Roberto never to complain when I must wait for anyone to vacate a bathroom. And I’m now grateful to fold a load of laundry—anytime—‘specially those clean, dry, towels.

Father, please teach me to be still before You each day. To remember to thank You for each and every provision you give to me, even the simple, small ones that I take for granted. Everything comes from You. You are the giver of every good gift.

The Manual

By Alan Mowbray –

I’m a technical writer. It gives me great satisfaction to create an elegant manual that will enable a customer to solve problems and operate their purchased software at its peak capacity. My manuals are free to all customers who purchase our product.

The catch? You have to read it.

Occasionally, a customer calls for help with a problem and the fix is, let’s say, on page seven. I could ask them, “Did you read the manual?”

If I did, the answer would always be the same. “I couldn’t find it” or “It’s not covered in the manual.” But you can’t do that.

Early on, I made the mistake of answering a customer’s cry for help with, “Did you look on page seven? It’s right there.” The customer was already frustrated—whether she read the manual or not.

Click. Dial tone.

Then she called my boss. Ahem, you only do that once. Time to enroll in Bedside Manners 101.
So when a customer calls and I perceive they never took the time to read the manual I wrote and could recite from memory, I refuse to take offense. I help them. I guide them through the process. At the end, I bring them to the manual and show them how to find the answer for themselves the next time.

Customer service is more than solving a problem, it’s also teaching. I spend extra time to help my customers to understand the product and manual. Because if you are successful and can solve your own problems by using the manual, you don’t need my help anymore and I’ve done my job.

God gave us a manual, too. The Bible. But instead of reading the Word of God and knowing it intimately, we skim through it in frustration or boredom—failing to find the answers we need. Then we complain to God or others, throw up our hands in defeat, or even worse, sit on the problem in silence until it gets uncontrollable and painful.

Our customer service skills can be just as bad. How can we expect to assist those who are spiritual newbies if we haven’t read—and understood—the Manual ourselves?

Our spiritual walk constantly shifts us back and forth between the status of student or teacher. At times, we end up being both. Ever been teaching and getting a download from the Father at the same time? So cool. But through it all, we need to understand our current status and act accordingly. And both require using The Manual.

As a teacher, your customer service skills can water a seed or kill it. If someone came to you for spiritual help—although you might like to—would you respond with a curt, “Did you even take the time to open your Bible and read it?”

No, you wouldn’t. With a gentle, loving heart, you would stop what you were doing, take the time to open The Manual with them, and show them what God says about that specific issue.

Jesus is the perfect example of this. Calm, loving, generous, and direct, He did everything in His Father’s power to help us. We need to be the same. When you hear that cry for help, apply love—and The Manual.

End of my customer service story—that frustrated customer that hung up on me is now one of the most knowledgeable customers I have. She could do my job. She doesn’t call with problems anymore, she calls just to say hi and tell me how much she appreciates the company I work for.

Job well done.

No. I Don’t Want To

By Kathi Woodall –

One night I hurried to throw dinner together. I added spices and other ingredients to ground beef before shaping it into hamburger patties. My oldest daughter mixed up coleslaw. My youngest daughter sat on the stool beside me. At four years old, her eagerness to help and her frequent position right next to me already made her into quite the little chef. She could measure, pour, mix, and even chop a little—with a table knife, not a sharp knife.

This particular night, she pleaded to help me. However, even with her diverse skills, she could do nothing to help with the hamburger patties. Her older sister asked her to help by retrieving ingredients from the pantry and refrigerator but she wanted to help mommy, not sister. Besides, I believe she felt those tasks didn’t fit with her particularly advanced skill set. I could tell she only wanted to do the “bigger” jobs such as mixing and measuring.

So often I have seen myself in her position. Just as she sat beside me and watched me work, I have been in the presence of the work of God. I watch what He is doing and, like my helpful daughter, I eagerly want to join in and help. So He gives me a job to do.

Perhaps He says, “Make a phone call.” But I say, “No, I don’t want to do that. I want to teach a lesson about this issue.”

He says, “Donate some money.” But I say, “Hey, I could write a really great blog article about this.”
I might hear Him say, “Tell her about Jesus.” So I respond with, “No, not now. I’ll just be a good listener.”

Like my daughter, my heart is in the right place. I truly do want to be helpful. The things I want to do are all good things. However, if they aren’t what God is asking me to do, then am I really being helpful? We each have a unique way to fit into the work of God’s kingdom; however, God is the One who determines what that way should be.

“So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body. So the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary” (1 Corinthians 12:13-22 HCSB).

The Power of Prayer—Never Underestimate It

By Lori Freeland –

My son came home yesterday and greeted me with a few of the most terrifying words a mom never wants to hear. “I almost got killed at the El Dorado intersection in McKinney this morning.” Then he gave me a hug and walked on past.

“What?” I followed him down the hall, my heart racing ahead of me, already up the stairway and in the next room. Didn’t matter the incident was hours old and my tardy visceral response did nothing but hike my blood pressure.

Kyle turned and proceeded to tell me he’d been waiting to turn left, completely missed the guy going straight—you know the guy with the Right of Way?—and he had to swerve, hit the curb, and almost popped his tire.

After I leashed my heart and stuck in back inside my chest for optimal performance, I sagged against the stairs. My first thought? The prayer I’d murmured over him this morning before he’d walked out the door.

The same prayer I played on repeat day after day since he’d slid into that car alone and I whimpered as his tail lights disappeared down the street.

Thank you, Lord for hearing me when I pray!

Don’t ever underestimate, devalue, or ignore the power of prayer. God is listening to you—sometimes you just can’t feel it.

“Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth” (Psalm 54:2 NIV).

“But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you” (Psalm 88:13).

The Judas in All of Us

By Janet Morris Grimes –

Judas. We all know his story. His name is synonymous with traitor. The eternal back-stabber.

For this reason, there have been few children that carry the name Judas. His life serves as the perfect example of what not to do, especially if you are a Christian.

Jesus knew early on that Judas would become the betrayer. Still, He invited him into his inner circle. Judas managed the money for the twelve Apostles; but was a shady businessman, stealing from that same moneybox. His decisions were based on profit margins, never matters of the heart. If it were up to Judas, there would have been a massive public relations campaign, spotlighting all that Jesus had done, asking for funding so that His ministry could continue.

Judas had a front-row seat to the ways of Jesus. He saw the miracles for himself. But more than this, he knew the grace. The love in His eyes. The way He spoke of eternity. And hope.

Still, Judas didn’t buy into it. He never allowed his heart to become a part of the equation; never sensed the fact that even he might one day need a Savior.

Judas was destined to be a part of Jesus’ story. Before what became known as the Last Supper, Judas sought out the Chief Priests, determining the cost for the life of Jesus. From that moment on, the book of Matthew tells us that Judas waited for an opportunity to hand him over (Matthew 26:14 – 15 NIV).

Judas still had to play the part of the adoring apostle. During the Last Supper, Jesus predicted his betrayal, acknowledging that it would be Judas, even saying that it would be better for him not to have been born. Jesus instructs him, “What you are about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27).

Judas leaves to make his mark in history.

A few hours later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas leads the angry mob to Jesus. He greets him with a kiss, and mocks him even further by calling him Rabbi (Matthew 26:49).

Jesus responds by calling him ‘Friend.’ “Friend, do what you are here to do” (Matthew 26:50).

That’s some kind of friend. The ultimate betrayal.

If the truth were known, Judas could have reconsidered. They still would have gotten Jesus. Judas didn’t have to become the enemy of the story.

After watching the gruesome crucifixion, Judas felt remorse. He even returned the thirty shekels of silver, realizing, finally, that wealth did not bring the happiness nor acceptance that he craved.

His story ends with Judas hanging himself.

If Judas were thinking clearly, he might have remembered how Jesus had predicted his own death. And even more, that He promised to return. He had seen him heal the multitudes. There had been no unforgivable sins.

He could have sought the other apostles, confessed what he had done, begged to be baptized, or prayed to God to seek forgiveness. He could have been the hero to this story, the first one waiting at the tomb to apologize. Like the thief on the cross, he could have been the King of Second Chances.

Instead, he becomes the poster child for what happens after sin. Guilt. Remorse. Darkness. Even death.

I suspect there is a little Judas in all of us. We make bad choices, but instead of grabbing the one hand that can save us, we wrestle with our past, wallow in our remorse, and keep reminding Jesus what we did to Him.

He already knows. And He died anyway. So that we could join Him.

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