The power of serving others

This morning I had another good coaching session with Carlos Lopez, our hispanic church planter. I am really encouraged about the progress that he is making in connecting with the community.

We met at Starbucks for our coaching session. I arrived early, and during that time I saw Allysa again. She told me that she was from Canada, which I think I had forgotten, and that her family moved to Virginia. She liked living in Colorado or anyplace northern in the US, but still prefers Canada.

Anyway, after I ordered, one of the customers dropped his drink, and it went everywhere. The workers were really busy, so I got a bunch of napkins and cleaned it up.

They said, you don't have to do that, but I did it anyway, and I could tell that they were grateful. One woman--I'm not sure if she was a customer of worker, but I think the latter--said, Boy, your wife must really love having you around.

Hmm . . . I'm trying to be more servant-oriented at home, but my wife would testify that I am much better at teaching, encouraging, affirming, listening, etc. at home. While I seek to have a servant attitude in general, as to the "gift" of service (doing tedious tasks), my gifts lie in other areas. I am motivated to do "servant" tasks in places like Starbucks by the gift of evangelism. It is one of the few ways in those settings that I can show Christian love.

Simple acts of service can go a long way of impacting people, whether at home, in the church, or in Starbucks.

How have you seen simple acts of service impact people in your family, church, or with non-Christians?