We can still be a blessing!
This is a series… Check previous blogs here: https://lifeasan.asker.net/2020/03/18/we-can-still-be-a-blessing/
We just had someone drop off a hand-me-down bike for my youngest. A friend suggested a book swap with our kids (after we wipe them down of course, and hand off at a distance…). I got a text the other day that started, “Was told to check on my extrovert friends…” Brian has been helping me a TON since my computer died Sunday (I know: worst timing ever for that first world problem).
When people serve me, I feel loved. I know my kids love it. I feel like someone has noticed I have a need and don’t just look at that empty space, but do something to try to fill it.
Service is something that Jesus embodied. His famous last moments with the disciples, mere hours before He would be on the Cross, breathing His last, He spent time with those men talking and washing their feet.
Washing feet was not fun. It was the opposite of social distancing. It was unsanitary and likely, unfunny.
Yesterday I took my kids to a gravel pit/park. It was not just dusty, it was literally dirty. I sat on the hard dirt and tried to stay clean while my kids got as dirty as possible. Elam even swam a bit.
But before we walked back to the car, my kids sat on the edge of the water and washed their own feet. Cleaned up that dirt. Then they were able to walk back to the van. Unfortunately, I was in Chacos and it was impossible to not kick the clods of dirt. Impossible not to get gravel into my toes. Impossible to feel clean until I got home.
People walked in sandals way less fancy than my Chacos back in Jesus’ day. And they were avoiding more than dirt clods. Animal droppings. Water. Garbage. And dirt. All over their probably stinky feet.
Jesus washed those feet, even the feet of Judas who was about to turn a kiss into a death sentence. And then He told everyone, He tells us, to wash one another’s feet.
What does it look like in COVID-19 days to wash feet? My friends have modeled some ideas.
What have you seen? Turning Homer Hankies from the MN Twins into face masks was a good story I saw. Bauer hockey helmet makers are now making face shields in their factories. Delivering meals, calling friends to check in and doing yard work for those who can’t all are easy ways we can serve one another.
BLESS is all about trying to help bless those with the blessings we have received from God. Bless is about helping those who do not understand that God loves them, that God wants to serve them.
One last thing: You may feel that you have nothing left after these days of working on line, getting kids’ schooling on line and your church services on line. You may feel exhausted by simply feeding your family and trying to keep up with your job. You may feel hopeless and empty after losing your job or your regular routines. And to think of serving someone else seems like too much.
Well let me encourage you: You were created to serve because you were created in God’s image. That same God who washed feet.
You may not feel like it. But I can almost guarantee that after you choose to serve someone else, God will meet you in it and surprise you.
And if afterwards you say, nope that was NOT worth it. Then guess what, the other person likely is saying, “Wow, I am so glad she did that!” And perhaps that can be enough to get through one more day of COVID-19.
(you can learn more about the BLESS resources on https://covchurch.org/evangelism/bless/ )