Daily
Devotional

Some years ago, my wife and I were in Portland for camp meeting when we were called home suddenly because our upstairs bathroom had sprung a leak and flooded much of our house. We found ourselves facing a huge clean-up and remodel project. With three floors of devastation, many workmen were at our home during the following weeks. This gave us several opportunities to let our lights shine for the Lord.

We ordered Formica for the bathroom counters, but after it was installed, we noticed that it was not the exact color we had ordered. My wife mentioned the mistake to me, but we agreed it was not serious enough to have it replaced. The young men who installed the Formica were at our home again to install the carpet, and while they were there, my wife made them some homemade cinnamon rolls and coffee. Nothing was ever said about the color of the Formica.

On another occasion, our electrician remarked that he was surprised about the way we had handled a certain situation. I told him that the remodel and the time it took were not as important as the memories we would have of the people we worked with. By the time the job was finished, everyone had mentioned that they had never worked on a job like this before.

To my wife and me, our Christian witness came before every other aspect of the job. We did not try to take advantage of the workmen, but rather showed them the kindness that Jesus has shown to us. We wanted them to see the wisdom of the Gospel, which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).  

Winston Churchill once said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Everyday hassles are a part of life, but we do not have to view them merely as difficulties; we can ask the Lord to help us see those hassles as opportunities to “save a soul from death.”