UPDATED Today’s AMI QT Devotional, provided by Pastor Ryun Chang (AMI Teaching Pastor), was first posted on August 10, 2014.
Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend
“I Don’t Clean Up After Others”
Gal. 5:13b
Through love serve one another
1 Peter 4:10
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.
What is often overlooked in serving others is this: servants clean up after someone else’s mess, and hardly anyone in our entitlement-crazed world would opt for that.
Many years ago, I heard a baseball commentator make an amazing comment after then-the best reliever in baseball, Trevor Hoffman (with a success ratio of keeping the lead to save the win at 98%), gave up a home run that cost the win. He said, “Hoffman should have started the inning instead of entering the game with a runner on the first base, because the relievers don’t mind cleaning up their own mess but not someone else’s.”
Hearing that comment reminded me of what an old college roommate did one time in the early 80s. Since six guys were living in a 2-bedroom apartment, stacks of dirty dishes were often left unwashed in the sink. So one Sunday night, frustrated over having done that chore too often, I told my roommate to do the dishes. Now, there were enough dirty dishes and pots for a guy to labor for at least 20 minutes, but the roommate came back to the room after a minute. Incredulous, I asked, “Done already?” to which he said, “Yes.” So, I quickly went to the kitchen to see what he did and saw that the stacks were still there. That’s when I figured out that my roommate washed only the dishes that he had used during the week: He probably spent more time trying to find them than washing them! Isn’t the philosophy of my old roommate and the baseball commentator the same?-“I don’t mind cleaning up after my own mess but not somebody else’s.”
If Christ had the same philosophy, we would all be going to hell, since he won’t be interested in cleaning after someone else’s mess. Thank God that Christ didn’t, for “he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24); and “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Remember: the next time you say that you want to be Christ’s servant, what you are really saying is, “I’m willing to clean up after someone else’s mess.” So, you may find yourself helping out a friend who has made the same mistake, again. Or you may be doing the work that others failed to complete. As for me, I did the dishes that night, again, both mine and those of other roommates.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for having cleaned up my spiritual mess when you went to the cross to die for my sins. Thank you for continuing to clean up my mess through your finished work on the cross. Help me to confess my sins daily so that I can always have fellowship with you. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Jude 1