Serving spirit

I was in a fishing store the other day and the sales clerk was downright rude to me and was not interested at all in helping me find what I was looking for. About that time a good friend of mine walked up who has much stature in our little community as being one of the top fishermen on the island. As the sales clerk looked on, we exchanged friendly greetings with each other. My friend knew the sales clerk too and introduced us to each other. He told the clerk about my new boat and then how much he enjoyed fishing with me and that I had recently won some fishing tournaments. The clerk’s demeanor towards me was suddenly night and day compared to how it was five minutes earlier before this nice introduction by such an important and respected person. I now have a new best friend’ in the Florida Keys. Now this sales person makes a beeline for me whenever i enter the store and cannot be nice enough; ad nauseum

I experienced a similar incident at a very large church I used to attend. One of the heavy-hitters’ in the church walked around with his nose stuck up in the air and barely glanced in my direction. If the pastor or any of the wealthy members came in he would run to them like a beagle chasing a rabbit with a fake smile as big as Texas plastered on his face. But he had never even said as much as hello to me even when I smiled at him and stated, “good morning”. I attended this church for several weeks and one day the pastor and I were standing down at the front of the church talking and here came the beagle’. The pastor was of course on his list of people to know, so he walked right up and barged in on our conversation. When I was introduced the pastor told this guy who I was, what I do for a living and where I live. You guessed it; I immediately had another new best friend’.

People like this make me physically ill. Clothes do not make the man’, nor does wealth, where someone lives, or who they know. Personally I do not care about any of that. I have friends of practically every occupation and income level. I find that some of the best people in the world are the Webster’s definition of ordinary people. Years ago I hitch-hiked into Atlanta as a homeless person without one penny in my pocket At that point in my life many people would have turned up their nose at me and treated me like dirt. (Many of them did just that,) After thirty six years of taking risk and hard labor, I have accumulated some material possessions and have a decent job. Now these same people would be inclined to vote for me for Businessman of the Year in Gwinnett Co.

The Bible teaches us to love, respect, and ‘serve’ our brothers and sisters. It does not say to do this after checking their credit rating and determining if they make a certain income, live on the right street, or if they have accomplished some mighty deed. We are specifically instructed not to save the best seats at church for what we deem to be the best people in the church, rather we should give up that seat to someone in need of it. The Bible instructs us to serve’ others. Jesus upset the church elders of His day to no end by mingling and socializing with what they thought of as rabble. As always Jesus is our example. We should never turn up our nose at anyone and we should never judge a book by its cover

Matt. 20:26
Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be
your servant and whoever wants to be first
must become your slave. For even I, the
Son of Man came here not to be served,
but to serve others and to give my life
as a ransom for many.