"I'm going to need you to put a flat lid on this," said the lady to whom I just handed her iced coffee.
"I put the dome lid on because there is a little bit of extra ice in there and I didn't want to make a mess out of your drink." I explained.
"I don't care. No one else makes my drink like this. Put a flat lid on! Are you new here?" Her insults spewed from her lips faster than I could have even corrected the mistake.
Taking her drink back, I removed the dome lid and put a flat lid on. Just as I expected the drink overflowed, down the sides of the cup and onto the top of the lid. I proceeded to wipe off the sides of the drink and handed it back to her.
Obviously getting more upset, "This drink is a MESS!"
"Yes, that is why I put the dome lid on it."
The next few minutes proceeded on like this. Her being over-dramatic about a meaningless situation and me being a little bit more snarky than I should have been. As my co-worker remade her drink, conviction settled. I was unkind and I knew it. The Holy Spirit began to probe my heart.
As my co-worker handed her the new drink, I approached the woman and apologized for my attitude and my mistake. She looked up at me with unkind eyes and said, "You aren't sorry! You were incredibly rude!"
~~~~
First, we'll get the obvious out of the way. How quickly that could have been avoided if people did not live as if they were entitled to their way all the time and always being right.
But the more important idea I want to talk about is this:
After the ordeal and as I baffled at my ability to get upset so quickly, God spoke so clearly to my heart, reminding me of the words I had read earlier in Ephesians. "Be kind to everyone, Leah."
"But God! I don't want to be kind, she was so unkind to me!"
"Be kind to everyone."
That was all. It was as easy as that. How was it fair that she could be so unkind to me and I am called to turn the other cheek? How is it fair that she can walk all over me and God tells me to love her anyway?
It's because I am called to a different Kingdom, a different life, i have been made new.
I have been studying the book of Ephesians and it is radically all about the Gospel. Ephesians 1 describes who God is and what He has done and the praise that He deserves because of His glory. It is that who HE is has made me who I am. Ephesians 2 reminds us what we were. And you were dead in your trespasses. Once during youth group in high school, my youth pastor was preaching and all of us were in a circle and he told us to imagine a dead person was in the middle of that circle. That person was dead. They were lifeless, without breath, without hope, without choice. That image sticks with me when I remember who I was. I was a child of wrath, I was devoted to destruction.
In the transitional pivot in Ephesians it says
BUT GOD...
because of his great love he adopted us into a new Kingdom, a new household.
In Ephesians 3, he tells us that this Gospel is for everyone. Everyone is invited to be a member of God's household. He prays then, that we being rooted and grounded in love would have the strength to comprehend this incredible truth.
Ephesians 4 brings the commands, the guidebook by which we live. Therefore... be humble... gentle..speak truth...no longer walk as Gentiles...put off your old self...be renewed...in true righteousness and holiness... put away falsehood..do not sin...no corrupting talk...do not grieve the holy spirit... be kind to one another... forgiving one another...
If i read that list, the list of commands, requests and sins, fully by itself. I would become irritated and frustrated. No, I don't want to be kind to the customer that tells me I'm dumb, or my boss that has the incredible ability to make others feel like they are nothing. No I don't want to gentle and humble to my sister that claws for my attention. I don't want to forgive those people. On my own.
But when I read those commands within the context of God telling me who He is, reminding me of how worthy HE is and how HE deserves nothing less than my entire heart. When I remember what HE saved me from, how HE put breath in my dry bones and adopted me from a child of wrath to a child of HIS. When I am reminded that HE gave this gift to everyone, including the unkind customers, my prideful boss and my annoying sister, I can turn the other cheek in LOVE. Because it is then that I turn my eyes from the situation and see HIM. When I read those commands in that context, my heart is free to follow them. I will be humble because Christ was humble, I will speak truth because that is all that is given to me. I will walk in the newness of LIFE because that is what God has given me. I will be kind and forgive because that is who HE has called me too.
No, those commands don't always seem fair. But I am now a stranger to this world. I live in a different kingdom and a different household. I serve a beautiful, wonderful, indescribable God and when He says, "Leah, be kind." I will turn the other cheek and I will be kind with his grace, his love, his heart.
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."
Ephesians 2:19-22
"I put the dome lid on because there is a little bit of extra ice in there and I didn't want to make a mess out of your drink." I explained.
"I don't care. No one else makes my drink like this. Put a flat lid on! Are you new here?" Her insults spewed from her lips faster than I could have even corrected the mistake.
Taking her drink back, I removed the dome lid and put a flat lid on. Just as I expected the drink overflowed, down the sides of the cup and onto the top of the lid. I proceeded to wipe off the sides of the drink and handed it back to her.
Obviously getting more upset, "This drink is a MESS!"
"Yes, that is why I put the dome lid on it."
The next few minutes proceeded on like this. Her being over-dramatic about a meaningless situation and me being a little bit more snarky than I should have been. As my co-worker remade her drink, conviction settled. I was unkind and I knew it. The Holy Spirit began to probe my heart.
As my co-worker handed her the new drink, I approached the woman and apologized for my attitude and my mistake. She looked up at me with unkind eyes and said, "You aren't sorry! You were incredibly rude!"
~~~~
First, we'll get the obvious out of the way. How quickly that could have been avoided if people did not live as if they were entitled to their way all the time and always being right.
But the more important idea I want to talk about is this:
After the ordeal and as I baffled at my ability to get upset so quickly, God spoke so clearly to my heart, reminding me of the words I had read earlier in Ephesians. "Be kind to everyone, Leah."
"But God! I don't want to be kind, she was so unkind to me!"
"Be kind to everyone."
That was all. It was as easy as that. How was it fair that she could be so unkind to me and I am called to turn the other cheek? How is it fair that she can walk all over me and God tells me to love her anyway?
It's because I am called to a different Kingdom, a different life, i have been made new.
I have been studying the book of Ephesians and it is radically all about the Gospel. Ephesians 1 describes who God is and what He has done and the praise that He deserves because of His glory. It is that who HE is has made me who I am. Ephesians 2 reminds us what we were. And you were dead in your trespasses. Once during youth group in high school, my youth pastor was preaching and all of us were in a circle and he told us to imagine a dead person was in the middle of that circle. That person was dead. They were lifeless, without breath, without hope, without choice. That image sticks with me when I remember who I was. I was a child of wrath, I was devoted to destruction.
In the transitional pivot in Ephesians it says
BUT GOD...
because of his great love he adopted us into a new Kingdom, a new household.
In Ephesians 3, he tells us that this Gospel is for everyone. Everyone is invited to be a member of God's household. He prays then, that we being rooted and grounded in love would have the strength to comprehend this incredible truth.
Ephesians 4 brings the commands, the guidebook by which we live. Therefore... be humble... gentle..speak truth...no longer walk as Gentiles...put off your old self...be renewed...in true righteousness and holiness... put away falsehood..do not sin...no corrupting talk...do not grieve the holy spirit... be kind to one another... forgiving one another...
If i read that list, the list of commands, requests and sins, fully by itself. I would become irritated and frustrated. No, I don't want to be kind to the customer that tells me I'm dumb, or my boss that has the incredible ability to make others feel like they are nothing. No I don't want to gentle and humble to my sister that claws for my attention. I don't want to forgive those people. On my own.
But when I read those commands within the context of God telling me who He is, reminding me of how worthy HE is and how HE deserves nothing less than my entire heart. When I remember what HE saved me from, how HE put breath in my dry bones and adopted me from a child of wrath to a child of HIS. When I am reminded that HE gave this gift to everyone, including the unkind customers, my prideful boss and my annoying sister, I can turn the other cheek in LOVE. Because it is then that I turn my eyes from the situation and see HIM. When I read those commands in that context, my heart is free to follow them. I will be humble because Christ was humble, I will speak truth because that is all that is given to me. I will walk in the newness of LIFE because that is what God has given me. I will be kind and forgive because that is who HE has called me too.
No, those commands don't always seem fair. But I am now a stranger to this world. I live in a different kingdom and a different household. I serve a beautiful, wonderful, indescribable God and when He says, "Leah, be kind." I will turn the other cheek and I will be kind with his grace, his love, his heart.
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."
Ephesians 2:19-22
No comments:
Post a Comment