The Pastor’s Piece – February 27, 2022

The Pastor’s Piece

FCFI

February 27, 2022

c He said he would then devote his time to helping his two sons in their businesses. One was a contractor who built houses, the other had a trash can cleaning business. That intrigued me. 

I pictured a guy chasing the garbage truck down the street running along with a brush and bucket of sudsy soap water splashing out all over the place. That did not seem very inviting. So I asked my new friend, whose name is James, about it.

James said his son has a medium sized truck with two water tanks, a lift gate, and automatic brush. He does chase the garbage truck, but all he does is pull up to the empty trash can after the garbage man has dumped it into his truck. He then extends automatic arms that lift the empty trash can and hold it upside down in a tray like container while the automatic brush scrubs it inside and out. The gray water then goes into a separate tank for disposal later. Then, he gently sets the trash can back on the curb all clean and shiny. The operator never has to get out of his heated/air conditioned cab. It’s all automatic. The consumer pays a monthly fee to have him scrub his trash cans. Everybody’s happy. 

I was in town the other day after it had snowed and warmed up and then got cold again, freezing water into a nice layer of ice on the windshield.  It could be scraped off, but only with a lot of effort. I started my vehicle and went to work clearing the ice. Right about the time I was finishing up, I noticed the vehicle directly in front of mine was running with its headlights on, but there was no action around the car. I thought maybe they didn’t have a brush and ice scraper and were waiting for the defroster to melt the ice. I went around to the side window to see if they needed help – only there wasn’t anyone inside. 

I had to wait for my truck to warm up so the defroster would keep my windshield de-iced so I started scraping my neighbor’s windshield. I figured that was better than sitting in a cold vehicle waiting for the heater to catch up. This way I could warm up while my truck warmed up – and do a good deed at the same time. I realized at that moment that they had used the remote to start their vehicle. I thought maybe I could get it scraped off before they got there. Suddenly I heard a shout of: “Hey, isn’t that my car?!” I said it was indeed their car, I mean no, I didn’t know if it was their car because I didn’t know them. All I knew is that it wasn’t mine and it had ice on the windshield. It was a younger couple. I explained what I was doing and they were very happy and smiled and thanked me profusely. The fun part was that I didn’t know them and they didn’t know me and we probably never will know each other. They made my day and I made theirs. I think that’s how it’s supposed to work.

2 Corinthians 9:11: “Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.”

You know, I love meeting these people and I also love doing random acts of kindness. The Bible tells us that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is generosity. We can be generous in many different ways. One way is to give money. Another is to give of our time. Another is to give kindness in generous proportions. We must work with the right attitude and give God the glory.

Here’s an email I received the other day: “Dear Pastor. My husband and I have really tried hard to bring our boys to church regularly this year. Sunday School is one of the first activities our oldest son has been involved in without his dad or I supervising. Every week we struggle. The boys act up or get upset during the church service and it is hard not to get discouraged and wonder if they are even getting anything out of it. I just wanted you, and the Sunday School teachers to know how great the church and especially Sunday School has been for our oldest son. Today he came upstairs all smiles and couldn’t wait to tell us his verse that he remembered! We always ask him what he’s learned and he doesn’t always remember the main point of his lesson. He was so excited to tell us “Jesus came to seek and save us!” I guess they are taking some things in after all! It really made our day!  Thank you for all of the awesome Sunday School teachers and what they do to make everyone, even the parents with wild crazy kids, feel welcome every week!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!  

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin)