Simple words with special outcomes

The day had seemed longer than it had actually been and now my feet were aching. I wanted the shopping trip I was accompanying my wife on to finish. I didn’t want to entertain another moment of browsing and regular glances at my watch communicated this clearly.

‘Just one more shop’ I heard, but I was sure I had heard that somewhere before. We walked into the local branch of a famous department store and headed towards the counter of a well known skin-care range of products. The atmosphere was alive with an intoxicating mix of scents and the staff all wore their multiple layers of foundation cream very well. ‘Can I help you?’ a friendly voice enquired.

My wife began to take her up on this offer of assistance and I could tell from the direction of their interaction that this could be a long visit in this ‘just one more shop’. Another member of staff joined in and my wife seemed to be in her element having two people help her spend money. I may have had one eye on the approaching expiry time of our car park ticket but I couldn’t help but be impressed by the way these two shop assistants were engaging.

I pointed at my watch and nodded at my wife and she knew it was time to bring this shopping fest to an end. She picked up the items she wanted to purchase and the two staff accompanied her to the till where she paid for them. I was looking forward to retrieving the car without any penalties when my wife threw a spanner in the works. ‘Would it be possible to see your manager please’ she enquired of the staff. My hopes of a swift exit were dashed and the two staff members looked perplexed, even worried. Had they done or said something wrong?

They put a call out for the manageress who arrived with her ‘shield and armour’ ready to face the barrage of another customer complaint. ‘I just wanted to commend your staff’ my wife said. The ‘shield’ dropped and a sense of the unexpected could be felt. ‘In all my years of retail work, I have never come across customer service as good as I have experienced from these two members of your staff today – I just wanted to say thank you’. It was a lovely moment and I could tell it had made their day. As we exited the shop for a very brisk walk to the car I commended her for doing such a lovely thing.

When we arrived back home I could hear my wife on the phone in the next room. She was now phoning the head office of the department store giving the names of the two staff members and lavishing praise on them for their excellence. The lady on the other end of the phone in the customer services department expressed that she had received lots of complaining calls throughout that day and was feeling quite affected, but that ‘this call’ had made her day.

The following week we were visiting the store again and as soon as we walked through the doors, these staff came towards us and gave us a big hug. One of them began to share some of the challenges she had faced recently but when she came into work at the beginning of the week, their names were printed on the wall of the staff room with a congratulatory message. With tears in her eyes she said ‘that is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me!’

The bible encourages us to ‘Let our conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt’ (Col 4:6). Christians can often be perceived as judgemental, complaining and highly skilled at articulating what is wrong and while there may be a ‘time for everything’, there is definitely a call for each of us to ‘season our conversation with grace’ and look out for opportunities to communicate the taste of Gods grace to others.

We’ve had some great conversations with these staff and we’ve had further opportunities to share the love of God. We don’t believe this story is quite finished yet...

But it’s a story that wouldn’t have started if I had followed my tired feet. The story began with my wife being a blessing by seasoning her conversation with the inspired grace of God. We can all be too busy, too self absorbed, too concerned with our own demands and aware of our own ‘tired feet’ and miss the opportunity to start stories. Let’s reach beyond ourselves and offer encouragement and blessing to others. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we were known for the traces of grace that we leave behind in every conversation?

Heaven and Earth - tensions for headspace

The space in my head has limitations. It’s like a soft sponge cake (no insults please) that can only be cut up into so many portions before it runs out. Lots of issues and people are vying for their own slice and I sometimes I feel like I need a ‘feeding of the five thousand’ miracle – I would be delighted if I could have 12 baskets of leftovers! I know I have limitations and restrictions and like us all I can simply run out.

As well as the demands of others, I have my own wants and desires that place demands on me – managing these can be even more challenging. One of my simple pleasures in life is a compulsion to know as much about what is going on in the world as possible. This drives me to instinctively reach for my smart phone as soon as my alarm clock announces the dawn of a new day to catch up with the breaking day’s headlines. I scan through subjects of world affairs, UK politics, technological announcements, entertainment news, sporting headlines and the local news – all on my tiny hand held device before a single grain of caffeine has even participated in my morning.

Sure that I am now familiarised with the main things taking place in this world I make my way to the kitchen to rectify the caffeine situation. I promptly put on the radio where the issues I had just read are being discussed. After making the family breakfast, fulfilling other morning duties and delving into my daily bible reading I may even get chance to switch on the TV to see videos playing of these same headlines.

Throughout the day I have ‘twitter’ to help inform me of any further developments of the day’s news. On arriving home I will try and catch up with the evening news – most days there has been little change but I still find it fascinating hearing the headlines and seeing interviews with experts and reporters about latest perspectives. Later that night I may get an opportunity to watch the late news, observe the ‘Question Time’ mob and even watch ‘Paxman’ maul his interviewees.

Informed I may be. Aware of world developments, trends and perspectives may make me feel connected and of course this is not all together a bad thing. But I have a limited ‘cake’ of thinking space, energy and perspective and God has challenged me about how much of that I’m dedicating his way.

Colossians 3: 2 hit me between the eyes saying ‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth’. Now we all know the saying that says of someone that they’re ‘too heavenly minded for any earthly use’ but honestly that is usually meant for people who are just being a bit ‘wierd’ – you know the ones who insist their breakfast choice of ‘Weetabix’ was the result of a direct revelation from God or the odd socks they are wearing was the result of a prophetic instruction from the Holy Spirit. God wasn’t challenging me to join their ranks and become a ‘spiritual funny-bunny’ but he was challenging me whether I knew as much of what was taking place in His kingdom as I knew about this world. I may be up to date with likely trends across a multitude of areas but was I as aware of what God was planning on doing? Was my insight prophetic and insightful? Was the predominance of my thinking committed to setting my mind on ‘things above’?

I thought about just how much ‘cake’ I was giving to follow ‘earthly things’ and decided it was way too much – most of it was repetition of the same story anyway. For me it was limiting how often I would engage with the news but that may not be your issue. For you it may be something else – your work, your hobby, your sports team, your social media, your gadgets, your craft making – none of these things are wrong and I’m really not suggesting that they are – but maybe like me you feel challenged about whether you’re giving the best bit of your ‘cake’ to the ‘things that are above’. Look up and enjoy the start of a new day!