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Loving My Neighbors - Barbara Brace
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The Most Accessible Form of Service - Sean Keesler
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The Perfect Grace - Barbara Brace
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I Have Decided - Frank Adams
The "Get Connected" series is a six week small group study curriculum that our church is currently engaged in. It is accompanied by the devotionals and sermon topics to help support our thinking about our church direction.
How do we serve? How do we help others to connect with the heart of God? Thank you to Barbara Brace who shares in today's devotional a God moment in her life.
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'
It was one of those days where I was running errands all day. In the morning, in a clothing store in Shoppingtown, I was assisted by a woman who was very personable and helpful. A few hours later, at Home Depot, the very same woman was there with her orange vest covering her dressy blouse, cheerfully helping me choose some shower fixtures. We spoke briefly about how she worked a couple of jobs and kept pretty busy most days. She seemed equally at home in both stores.
Last night, there she was running the checkout at my grocery store! "This woman is a dynamo", I thought. The customer in front of me was buying one item – a bag of Cheeze Twists – and began joking with the cashier and me. She had come in for distilled water, and because there was none on the shelf, she got a snack instead. The other customer pointed to my grocery selections, joking that I was “good” – I had broccoli and bananas - but “Oops, there’s a bag of candy!” she said. Then she noticed my reusable shopping bags (which I had fished out of my car trunk, where they usually lay un-used.) “Ooh, you’re really good”, she exclaimed. Then the cashier proudly told us that for every reusable bag – “We count ‘em!” - their store contributes 5 cents to the Food Pantry. At that, the woman said, “Food Pantry? Who cares about the Food Pantry people? They can buy their own stuff!” Without blinking an eye, and without taking offense, the cashier said, “I use the Food Pantry. Some weeks I only get 8 hours of work, and even at 10 dollars an hour, I don’t have enough for food.”
I always think of the FM area residents as being well-off, or at least comfortable. The grocery store checkout encounter has put the face of a real person right in front of me, and I plan to be more diligent – and certainly more generous – about giving to others who have needs that I can hardly understand. I pray that God continues to put reminders right in front of me, to help me love my neighbors as I love myself.
