Valerie Rae Hanneman
Matthew 20:32 (NIV) “Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asked.”
I was more than a little bit surprised when the bakery lady at Vons’s said, “You’re a real one aren’t you?” I was surprised because I have always considered myself to be real. But let me start at the beginning……. I have a weakness for Vons’s jalapeño and cheese bagels. I bought them every time that I was in Vons. I often took a little extra time to tell the bakery lady how good they were. One day she showed my some focchio bread with jalapeños and cheese. It had just come out of the oven, I took one whiff and I was a goner. She boxed it up for me and I had a big chunk of it eaten before I got home. When I went back to Vons I raved about that bread. An acquaintanceship developed into a small friendship. She told me the schedule for when the bread was going to be baked and I told her about my church, my ministries and my Jesus as often as I had the opportunity. When I was given the assignment to get a cake for Matthew & Lisa’s going away party I knew immediately where I was going. I explained to the bakery lady about how special this cake was and about my friends who were going to Nigeria. She told me what she could do and I commissioned the cake. When I picked up the cake it by far exceeded my expectations. The bakery lady had gone to a lot of extra effort for the cake. I was greatly enthusiastic – but she didn’t seem to be. I touched her hand, “Is something wrong?” She told me that there wasn’t, but her eyes told the truth. “I do the e-mail prayer chain at my church, can I pray for you?” Then she told me. Her grandson was having tests in just a couple of days – they were trying to figure out what was wrong with him – the C-word had been mentioned – he was just a child. I promised I would add the boy to the prayer chain and that I would pray for him. And I did. The next week I made a special stop at Vons. “How is your grandson?” I asked. “He’s going to be fine.” She answered. She explained what the doctors had found and then asked, “Can I get you some bagels?” “No, I still have some. I just came in to check on your grandson.” For a long moment she just looked at me. “You came in just to ask about my grandson?” “Yeah, I wanted to know how he is and to update the prayer chain.” I was more that a little bit surprised when the bakery lady said, “You’re a real one, aren’t you?” “Real one what?” I asked. “You are a real Christian, aren’t you?”
You can’t get too far into Jesus’ ministry without seeing that He often took time for the members of society that often went unnoticed or ignored. Children were of no value in the Jewish society and when the disciples tried to send them away from Jesus, He said, “let the little children come to Me.” (Matt 19.14) In Luke 8 Jesus is going with Jarius, the ruler of the synagogue, but He stops to heal a woman ill for 12 years. In Matthew 20 Jesus & His disciples are leaving Jericho followed by a great crowd and in the midst of this parade Jesus stops to heal two blind beggars. In John 4 Jesus travels to Sychar in Samaria to reach out to one Samarian woman scorned by her town. These are but a few of the times when we see Jesus stop what He is doing, or turn away from the direction He was going, or travel completely out of His way to reach out to those who were on the outskirts of society. He did not choose the most learned of the Israelites to be His disciples; He chose fishermen and tax collectors. He was often criticized by the upper crust of society because He spent His time with the lower crust of society. And yet, Jesus did not ignore the powerful of His time, either. When Nicodemus’ hungry heart couldn’t stand it any longer and he snuck through the night-darkened city streets to meet with Jesus, Jesus welcomed him with open arms. And after an exhausting day of ministry, Jesus took the time to talk to this seeker, probably late into the night.
Jesus cared enough about people to invest a His time, His efforts and His heart into reaching out to them. And He still does (and always will).
What does that mean to we who are called to follow Him? If it is our desire to model our lives after Jesus, then it means that we have to care enough about people to invest our time, our efforts and our heart into reaching out to them in Jesus’ name. And it means that we need to go past our normal circle of people and reach those who touch our lives only marginally. We need to lead the Bible study and we need to thank the food server with words as much as with a tip. We need to talk to our neighbor and we need to talk to our mechanic. We need to genuinely care about them and in caring for them, show them how much Jesus cares about them.
My boss was talking one day about making an effort to show our clients that we care about them. He told us about a study among patients of doctors who had made mistakes in their treatment. The patients were more willing to forgive the doctor for the mistake if they felt that the doctor had genuinely cared about them. This study held true when the doctor had made little mistakes and when they had made major mistakes. But the part of the study that was the most amazing was that the doctors whose patients felt that they had cared abut them had spend less than 30 seconds of additional time with their patients.
Thirty seconds was all it took to make an impression of caring.
I can take thirty seconds of my time to care about those who are around me. I can take thirty seconds to thank them, to talk to them, to care about them like Jesus does. And that thirty seconds may make the difference in where a person spends eternity.
Vons closed not long after the Bakery lady asked me if I was real. Although the bakery lady and I talked many more times before it did, and several times about Jesus, she never made a decision for Him. When Vons closed, she slipped out of my life. But my prayer and my faith is that somebody else will come into her life and be another real Christian for her and that I will be a link in the chain of events that will bring her to Jesus. I believe that one day the bakery lady and I will laugh on the streets of glory about what a difference a few Jalapeño bagels and thirty seconds of time made.
LORD Jesus, help me to never be so hurried and rushed that I cannot take the time or make the effort to show everybody how much You love and care for them.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-ministry of FFBC at Valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at February 3, 2008 08:58 PM