“Customer service”, he said, “should be fun for the person receiving it and for the person providing it!”
He was leading a class several years ago at an organization I had just joined.
It was easy to see that he was using the teaching gifts God had given him.
As he talked about the history of the organization, he told how the founder had been inspired to start it by a college professor.
Today the organization and its founder were known worldwide.
His energetic, heartfelt recounting of the history stopped for one second.
The smile left his face…
He looked down at his notes…
In a quiet voice he said, “I was in that same class. I didn’t hear any of those things.”
There was another pause. You could see the disappointment on his face.
Then as quickly as it had left, his smile returned and his presentation continued.
Was he jealous of his classmate?
Did he think God had somehow been unfair to him, that He should have given him the gifts to start the organization?
I will never know. But I thought about him twice recently.
I thought of him first when a Dr. Seuss quote showed up in my Facebook news feed…
“Today you are you
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive
That is youer than you.”
I thought of him again when I drove past a church sign that read:
“God made you exactly as you are, so he can use you exactly as He plans”
It’s so easy to wish God had given us different gifts, or to be jealous of those to whom we think he has given greater gifts.
But every minute we spend in those thoughts is one less minute in which we can give back to God the gifts He gave first to us…
One less minute in which He can use us exactly as He plans….
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
