I listen to a lot of the Oprah channel on XM radio. Too much depending on whom you ask
(Tommy). I like it though and
listening to old episodes from the 80’s never fails to entertain me. Oprah talks a lot about living your
best life, doing great things for others, finding what you’re put on earth to
do and all that jazz.
It inspires me, you know? Driving Monster to school, I find myself contemplating all
the ways I can help others. What’s
my niche? What can I do for others
that no one else can? What did God
create me for?
These are the important questions, man.
At work the toilet paper roll in the bathroom always seems
to run out whenever I’m there. It
annoys me to no end and I never, ever want to change it. Yes, I know it takes two seconds, but
when I walk into the stall and see that it’s down to it’s last two sheets I always
have to fight the urge to just use a different bathroom instead.
But I work at a church and it probably wouldn’t be very
Jesus-like to ignore the situation at hand. So I buck up and do the selfless thing and change the toilet
paper roll. I feel very noble for
a few minutes and I find myself hoping that other people recognize what a very
good Jesus follower I am when I change the toilet paper roll every single time
it runs out. I hope they know it’s
me always changing that roll for them.
I thought about these two things at work the other day when
I, yet again, found myself with three sheets left on the roll.
I want to do big, good things for other people. I want to help, to change lives. I want to do big, important work for
God, to change lives, impact the Kingdom, etc. etc. I want to live my best life, Oprah style.
But the reality is I
also want credit for changing the toilet paper roll at work.
I’m not all that sure I can be trusted with the big stuff. God may have some work to do with me
first…
And these are your deep thoughts for the day. What selfless acts have you done today
in the name of Jesus-following?
And how badly did you want credit for it? No? Just
me? Yeah, I thought so…
Your truth keeps me open to the heart of this message. Really well said, friend. Definitely not just you. I want the credit in a BAD way, and yet I've found that it is never quite enough, not when I depend on validation of that nice gesture to make it worth my while. So yes, I want the credit, but it always has an aftertaste that vaguely resembles disappointment. So in truth I guess the getting credit route doesn’t do me or anyone else much good. But I still do it. I'd like to believe this is not because I am a bad or overly selfish person (I'm more of an averagely selfish person), but because I want to feel like what I do matters. But the question then becomes, why does someone have to acknowledge a good deed in order for me to feel like it matters? I don't have the answer, so keep me posted if you figure it out. Regardless, this is a welcome reminder to practice selflessness more generously. I bet it will feel even better than taking the credit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, can’t speak for him, but God probably doesn’t want perfect people doing his work. Who would listen?
And YOU get toilet paper, and YOU get toilet paper!
yes. I totally get all of this. Thanks for sharing. Feeling like what you do matters is important. And that's not a bad thing I don't think. I wonder if there are other ways that we can feel like what we do matters, other than just making sure everyone and gives proper credit to all our awesome acts of selflessness :) That's the think I'm still figuring out.
DeleteAnd I hope God doesn't want perfect people or we're all screwed :)
Love you friend!