As the saying goes, “There’s one in every crowd!” On the third Tuesday of every month I have to
attend a meeting along with all of the General Managers on my team and my
boss. One of the GMs is “that” one. He has an opinion on just about every topic
(usually wrong) and when confronted, he is childishly defensive, but never
offensive in his rebuttals. But his abilities
as a GM far outweigh these shortcomings, so he’s a great guy to work with. I have known him and worked with him for
twenty years. In fact we celebrated his twentieth anniversary with the company
at today’s meeting. I celebrated my own
twentieth anniversary last month.
Tradition at these events holds that the honoree says some words about his
career and the people he has worked with.
When I gave my speech last month, I tried to keep it humorous,
but I also choked a few of my co-workers up when I referred to them as members
of my family. I thought I knocked it out
of the ballpark. Well, Charlie outdid me
today. How could he do that? Isn’t he the “one in every crowd?”
What floored me was his opening statements; “While I
appreciate this recognition, I give all the glory and honor that my career has
brought me to God. It is through His providence that I’ve been successful.” I must admit I didn’t listen much to the rest
of his speech. I was too embarrassed by my own lack of humility and shame that
I didn’t give God the same credit last month when it was my turn. I also felt a new-found surge of respect for
Charlie, because he was unabashedly Christian.
Of course, I’ve known for a long time that he is very active in his
church (that he described to me once as “Apostolic”), and that he takes his
Christianity VERY seriously. He uses his
vacation time to attend retreats and lead youth groups on their retreats. And I have NEVER heard him raise his voice in anger. After his speech today, I felt very
inadequate by my failure to publicly recognize God’s graces in my own life.
At times in our lives our faith can be challenged by things
around us. It could be people that we
interact with every day (like Charlie), or horrible acts of violence or disasters
that we see on the news—I’m thinking of the tragedy in Boston yesterday. Regardless,
each act has the opportunity to shake the foundations of our faith. The key for us is to stay strong in what we
believe. To push forward through the
pain and suffering while continuing to look towards the Lord since he will protect
us and guide us to eternal life. He will
be there for us always, even in the toughest times when we think he has
abandoned us, he will still be there.
Faith as strong as this is rewarded by the Lord. As Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me will
never thirst.” This belief is not just a
onetime thing though; it must be a constant showing. Faith is not a light switch that you can turn
on and off whenever you like, but instead it is something you should show every
chance you get. Jesus urges us to live
our lives like this every day.
Demonstrate your faith by showing love and respect to everyone around
you. If you do this, just as Jesus said,
“You shall be raised on the last day.” (JN 6:35-40)
God Bless
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