Life lessons learned from my daughter Taylor are always interesting. I sincerely hope she keeps teaching me as long as I am able to learn. Just a few dayss ago she called when she got off of work (as she normally does even though she lives 3 hours from us now) to share how her day had gone.
“It was surprisingly good. I had to clean up puke! The poor customer just couldn’t help that they got sick, and since I’m in nursing school I figured I’m probably gonna see that and worse I offered to help clean it after Ms. Emma and me made sure that the customer was okay.” (I’m thought to myself, “Okaaaaaaaaayyy. At least she’s being optimistic about it.”)
I’ll skip the ensuing back and forth that we seem to enjoy (sarcasm is a family “love language” sometimes) and just get to the end of her story... and it’s lesson. Sometime later the customer had apparantly shared her thanks on FB, and mentioned the restaurant’s name along with Taylor’s and Ms Emma’s names as well. The manager saw it and passed his appreciation on to the ladies. Taylor said, “We really just wanted to make sure that they were okay and tried to help them feel better. I never expected that to happen. Who would have thought that cleaning up puke would be the highlight of my day?”
It’s interesting to me, how desensitized we Christians can become to the river of Grace flowing through the worst situations. How we can miss the fact that our hardest trials become the catalyst for our greatest moments of growth and strengthening. Moments like these are how Jesus reminds us that in acts of caring for others and sharing strength in their weakness, what we might call a low point in our day... these are the moments when He is closest to us, and proudest of us. (If you’ll excuse the broadcasting metaphor...) That moment made Jesus’ highlight reel of Taylor’s life.
I have to confess, there's another reason that I thank God for that call. I, like so many others, struggle sometimes to keep moving forward. And somewhere in the midst of a life spent in service to Grace, even pastors can be standing next to that river and forget to dip their toes in it for a while. I needed the reminder that when I, even in moments of not wanting to, expend the energy to reach to those who have need, I’m relying on God’s Grace to move through me to turn low points into highlights. Theirs AND mine. If I pay attention, I realize that I don’t have to dip my toe into the river... because all of a sudden, I’m swimming in it!
It turns out that when we remember that service is the lubricant that keeps the machinery of the heart working properly; we begin to see low points as opportunities for God’s strength to move in miraculous ways, and high points as one more reason to thank the Giver of all good things.
Thanks for teaching your Dad a lesson Tay. I really needed to learn it. Today especially.
May the love of Christ be shed abroad in your hearts and your living my friends. And please remember to
Love in Christ always,
Chris
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