A Little Thought

"Carpet Cleaner"

Imagine you’ve just stopped by your neighbor’s house for a quick visit and while you’re chatting in the den, her toddler trips and hits his head on the sharp edge of a coffee table. Before you can even move, the toddler is covered in blood and as you rush to help him, you hear the boy’s mother behind you screaming, “Oh my Lord, he’s ruined my carpet!”

If the story were true, you’d be pretty angry, perhaps even livid, that a mother would be more concerned about carpet than about her injured son. Most likely, you would question whether she was fit to be a mother, and so would just about anyone who heard the story (John Walker, If You Are Bleeding, Come Back Tomorrow).

The truth of the matter is, we are all susceptible to reacting like the mother in that story. Too often, our focus is on things rather than people. We place a higher value on traditions than we do transformation. We get lost in the stuff rather than seeking the lost. Living this way is a recipe for bitterness and anger rather than gratitude and joy.

God wants His people to work for the common good regardless of how society treats us. He instructed His people exiled in Babylon to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf" (Jeremiah 29:7).

In Acts 2 we see a picture of a faith community devoted to meeting the physical, social and spiritual needs of those around them. “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

Multiple times per day, we are faced with opportunities to either be reactive or proactive. We can make the choice to react with anger and defensiveness or we can be proactive with joy and encouragement. Which will you choose today?

I remind you of the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they will be like wool” (1:18).

Might I suggest that we take we take our eyes off of the stained carpet and fix our eyes on the stained cross? As a result of His forgiveness, we have been washed clean in order that we can have eyes to see people differently. Through the lens of God’s grace in your life, look for ways to rush to help someone who is hurting today.

Quite simply, I encourage you to remember you are fit to be a Christian.

Hope to see you Sunday.

Peace,

Trey

Harvey Relief Weekly Update

• Utilize the Relief List website. Relief List is a tool to facilitate a way for people to communicate their needs and for others to meet them. Please visit the Grace website to connect to the Relief List page or please visit: relieflist.com/gpch.
  
  
• Connect with the HARVEY MEAL TRAIN If you love to cook and would like to join the Harvey Meal Train team to provide dinner for a family, please visit: www.gpch.org/meals. If you’re in need of homemade meals, there is an amazing team who would like to feed YOU! They will even coordinate with and customize for you to meet dietary preferences. Please contact Debbie Kaplan debbiekaplan@att.net.
  
  
• Keep Praying. Keep Encouraging. Keep Supporting. This week, we encourage you to pray for families making tough decisions about rebuilding, relocating, or restoring. The gift of an encouraging word, a fervent prayer, a homemade meal, a thoughtful card can make the world of difference to our friends in the midst of this long-term recovery process. Let's keep living intentionally to make Jesus visible to those in need.