Proverbs 3:28
Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow"-- when you now have it with you.
Luke 10:27
He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "
I wrote earlier about the "spiritual" experience of sitting through a timeshare sale presentation. If we had not gone through this we would have missed the ministry opportunity we had with the "front person" who scheduled the visit in the first place.
God works in wonderful and mysterious ways; sometimes I am too busy looking in the wrong place to see Him work.
Meet Ann, the "concierge" at the resort we visited in South Carolina.
She scheduled our timeshare sales presentation; that should have been our last interaction.
However, she invited us to come back and let her schedule and reserve the seats for the entertainment that we earned for sitting for 2 hours. She was so helpful that we asked for advice for places to dine; she gave us great seats at the show and great advice on dining, too.
Something else was calling us into a deeper relationship with Ann. While we talked with her more, we found out that she had 2 previous marriages and no husband now for a medically-distressed four-year-old daughter, who weighs only 14 pounds - I thought I had problems!
Ann works all day and stays up all night with her daughter who can't sleep except for short naps; this goes on for 4 days each week. I get tired just thinking about it.
With all of the kindness Ann showed us, my wife and I bought a little gift for her daughter and presented it to her the next day. You might have thought the gift was a new home by her reaction; she was crying tears of joy before she opened the stuffed animal and a Max Lucado book for children. She gave us an Easter card the next day; more tears and hugs - you get the picture.
If you have gone this far, you may ask, 'what has this got to with development?'
All of life, if seen through the Savior's eyes, is a spiritual experience. There is a life lesson in almost all we do, especially when we go "life on life".
Ann is another person created in God's image with purpose, capacity, passion and a legacy. If we can open the heart doors through acts of genuine Christian love, there are marvelous opportunities to minister Christ and usher folks into new and exciting places; places where they can impact lives for eternity.
Isn't that worth the time with a stranger?
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