No Toilet Paper. Again.
How many of you have experienced the following:
1. You are seated on your bathroom "throne" only to realize that someone has used up all the toilet paper, and left the empty cardboard roll dangling.
2. Some people have left their clothes on the floor, while the clothes hamper is just inches away.
3. Someone used the car and left the gas gauge nearly "empty", and here you are about to drive off.
4. Some people left their food on the table, and didn't clean up.
5. Someone borrowed your phone charger, and forgot to return it.
Yes, there are major world events that capture our attention: the ISIS situation, the U.S. elections, President Duterte's latest pronouncements, etc., but sometimes it is the minor things that drive us crazy or drain our energy.
Like messy toothpaste smears left on your bathroom sink. Or hair clogging the drain.
Like empty gas tanks.
Or last minute emergencies that need to be done.
Something inside you protests, and you find yourself wondering "Why ME??" "Why do I have to be the one to do this?!?" "UNFAIR!!"
What happens when "minor activities" like these get in the way of your major "more important" plans for your life? I know many moms whose days seemed filled with "minor activities": feed, burp, repeat./cook, clean, repeat.
Or this may be yours: wake, work, repeat.
That's when the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus' last night on earth:
Check out John 13:1-6
Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, "Master, you wash my feet??"
Okay, let's press the "pause" button for a sec.
This is Jesus' last night on earth.
His last day to be alive.
What would you do if you just had 1 day to live?
Precious seconds of his life are ticking by...it is almost night.
Judas is about to betray him.
He was about to be arrested.
He will be abandoned.
He was about to die in the cruelest, most agonizing way possible.
Yet on his last day on earth, Jesus chose:
To clean feet.
12 pairs of feet. 24 in all. Even Judas' feet.
Feet of the men who, hours later, would abandon him.
What a thankless task.
I wonder how long it took to wash 24 dusty, grimy male feet?
What emotions rose in him as he humbly knelt in front and washed the feet of Judas, his betrayer?
Jesus' actions puzzled even his followers.?The act of "foot-washing" was usually done by the lowliest servant in a household. Streets in those days were rough and stony, men in sandalled feet accumulated a lot of dust and dirt along the way. So upon entering a home, they needed to wash the grime off.
And here was Jesus, Hope of the World, Savior of Mankind, God in the flesh, spending his last precious hours, kneeling down, towel wrapped around his waist, doing a selfless act of service for others.
*What am I learning from this?
Ask yourself:
1. How do I react, when I am placed in a position of serving? When I am unnoticed or unappreciated?
Do I grumble and complain? Make people aware of my displeasure?
2. Do I actively go out of my way to serve others? Or do I expect others to serve me? Do I go the extra mile, to lighten someone's load? Or expect them always to cater after me: my wants, my schedule, etc.
3.What would your helpers, or the people who service you say about you?
*Acts of Service are important to God.
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. John 13:12-14
*To be Christ-like is to have an attitude of humility.
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave-just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:25-28
*Blessings come to those who serve.
For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ?If you know these things,blessed are you if you do them. John 13:15-17
I want to have a life blessed by the Lord. And now I'm realizing, sometimes blessings come disguised as minor things and God is watching my attitude.
They're sometimes wrapped in nursing babies, going to work, caring for family and yes, even replacing empty toilet paper rolls..
As we end this C.O.R.E. Prayer series, May God give us C-larity, O-rder, R-esults and the E-Energy to do what pleases Him.
See you next Thursday!
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