I work in a multinational company in Brazil. In 2003 Headquarters sent us a "Lean Operation Manager". As his secretary, I struggled to communicate with Mr. Thomas in limited English. Rushing to the airport to return to his family in Germany, he crashed his rented Mercedes. He called, speaking rapidly in German, and I panicked. I couldn't understand, and he was very far away. Mr. Thomas spoke no Portuguese.
A young man stopped. Sao Paulo is not a safe city. It's recommended you don't talk to strangers. This man showed his company credentials to ease any fears. To our extreme relief, Rodrigo spoke fluent English. Mr. Thomas handed him the phone, and his calmness soothed me. I was a nerve wreck, but Rodrigo said he'd stay until the tow truck arrived. His chatting calmed my boss. Then a public tow truck driver arrived, saying he must move the car to a gas station! Rodrigo volunteered to take Mr. Thomas, but the driver wouldn't tow an unattended car. Rodrigo talked to him, and I heard the truck driver's loud laugh. The truck driver pulled the Mercedes unattended. Rodrigo drove away from his destination to the gas station.
With our insurance company's tow truck hours away, my boss and I were stunned. He'd miss his flight if he waited, but who would hold the keys? Rodrigo convinced us everything would be all right. He refused our requests to plead to the tow driver to wait: "He's helped us enough." He requested the station manager to give the keys only to the insurance driver. The manager didn't want to take responsibility. Rodrigo said he knew he could count on him. He was so firm and confident, the man replied, "Sure." Listening via phone, I was amazed at his ability to inspire others to do good. We learned the cab wouldn't make it. Too much traffic. Rodrigo simply said, "Apparently, we'll have to spend a little more time together." Mr. Thomas replied, "You've done too much!" Rodrigo was on the way to his college work group, and this intruded. But Rodrigo had already opened the Mercedes' trunk and gotten the bags.
They took two hours and barely made the flight, but Rodrigo kept Mr. Thomas's mind off the clock. On arrival, Mr. Thomas offered US$100.00 for his trouble and gas, but Rodrigo refused payment and rushed Mr. Thomas to check in. Rodrigo was genuinely happy to help a stranger. His cheerfulness prevented despair; Mr. Thomas actually had a good time. What a bless to meet such a person! We should all be "Rodrigos". Since then, I try to be more like him, but sometimes, good works feel a little like a weight -- or like I'm special because of it. But Rodrigo simply did it. A trainee then, he must be a Director now. Such a special person couldn't go unnoticed. I wish I could tell him how he touched our lives. He deserves to hear it!
Kort agter vergelyk, is beheer. Mense wat behep daarmee is om te beheer gebruik baie keer manipulasie, skimpe en verskuilde dreigemente. Genade en guns is nie eintlik hulle sterkpunte nie, want hulle is eiewys en dink dat hulle alwetend is (vergelyk Rom. 12:16). Sien jy enige van die eienskappe in jouself raak? Dink net hoeveel gelukkiger jy kan wees as jy nie meer mense om jou en die uitkoms van situasies sal probeer beheer nie. Dennis Leonard het geskryf: "Gee aan jou geliefdes die waardigheid om hulle eie foute te maak en daaruit te leer. As jy altyd gaan inmeng in iemand anders se lewe, gaan jy nie net uitbrand nie, jy weerhou God daarvan om in hulle lewe te werk. Hulle behoort aan Hom, nie aan jou nie!
Paulus skryf die volgende aangaande die stryd oor Joodse voedselwette: "Die een wat alles eet, moet die ander wat net groente eet, nie verag nie; en die een wat net groente eet, moet die ander wat alles eet, nie veroordeel nie, want God het hom aangeneem," (Rom. 14:3, NAV). Omdat jy nie gemaklik voel om iets te doen nie, mag jy nie ander veroordeel wat dit wel doen nie. As jy 'n besliste mening oor iets het, gee dit jou nie die reg om dit op ander af te dwing nie.
Vra jouself af of jou houding vrede of verdeeldheid gaan veroorsaak. Om te groei in guns, beteken dat ons "ons (moet) beywer vir . onderlinge vrede" (Rom. 14:19, NAV) en nie moet spog met ons vryheid by ander wat nie dieselfde oortuigings as ons het nie. Paulus het gesê: "Elkeen moet net in sy eie gemoed oortuig wees van sy opvatting," (Rom. 14:5, NAV). Daar is tye wanneer jy nederig moet wees en biddend moet deurdruk, wat ook al gebeur!
I left work early so I could have some uninterrupted study time right before the final in my Youth Issues class. When I got to class, everybody was doing their last minute studying. The teacher came in and said he would review with us for just a little bit before the test. We went through the review, most of it right on the study guide, but there were some things he was reviewing that I had never heard of. When questioned about it, he said that they were in the book and we were responsible for everything in the book. We couldn't really argue with that.
Finally it was time to take the test. "Leave them face down on the desk until everyone has one and I'll tell you to start," our prof instructed. When we turned them over, every answer on the test was filled in! The bottom of the last page said the following: "This is the end of the Final Exam. All the answers on your test Fw final exams are correct. You will receive an 'A' on the final exam. The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the test took it for you. All the work you did in preparation for this test did not help you get the A. You have just experienced...grAce."
He then went around the room and asked each student individually, "What is your grade? Do you deserve the grade you are receiving? How much did all your studying for this exam help you achieve your final grade?" Now I am not a crier by any stretch of the imagination, but I had to fight back tears when answering those questions and thinking about how the Creator has passed the test for me.Discussion afterward went like this "I have tried to teach you all semester that you are a recipient of grace. I've tried to communicate to you that you need to demonstrate this gift as you work with young people. Don't hammer them; they are not the enemy. Help them, for they will carry on your ministry if it is full of GRACE!"
Talking about how some of us had probably studied hours and some just a few minutes but had all received the same grade, he pointed to a story Jesus told in Matthew 20. The owner of a vineyard hired people to work in his field and agreed to pay them a certain amount. Several different times during the day, he hired more workers. When it was time to pay them, they all received the same amount. When
the ones who had been hired first thing in the morning began complaining, the boss said, "Should you be angry because I am kind?" (Matthew 2015). The teacher said he had never done this kind of final before and probably would never do it again, but because of the content of many of our class discussions, he felt like we needed to experience grace.Have you thanked your Creator today because of the grace you have experienced?
The newly wed wife said to her husband when he returned from work, "I have great news for you. Pretty soon we're going to be three in this house instead of two." The husband started glowing with happiness and kissing his wife said, "Oh darling, I'm the happiest man in the world." "I'm glad that you feel that way because tomorrow morning my mother moves in with us," she replied.
Sir?
Officer: "Soldier, do you have change for a dollar?" Soldier: "Sure, buddy." Officer: "That's no way to address an officer! Now let's try it again! Soldier, Do you have change for a dollar?" Soldier: "No, SIR!"
Breakfast Special!
We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the "seniors' special" was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $1.99. "Sounds good," my wife said. "But I don't want the eggs." "Then I'll have to charge you two dollars and forty-nine cents because you're ordering a la carte," the waitress warned her. "You mean I'd have to pay for not taking the eggs?" my wife asked incredulously. "I'll take the special." "How do you want your eggs?" "Raw and in the shell," my wife replied.
I looked up from my grocery shopping cart in time to see her. She was not alone, but I paid no attention to the lady with her.
It was the elderly woman slowly pushing her cart through the grocery isles as was I, that caught my eye. Shuffling along looking at everything and nothing. That blank stare of her eyes let me know that she was not looking for anything in particular. She examined the cheese, she placed milk in her basket. At that point we were just two elderly women passing at the Dairy case.
Along with the blank stare of her eyes, I noticed the bruises on her face. My first thought was Elder abuse. I wanted to reach out to her. I wanted to take the bruises away. What I did was nothing but allow my mind to wander.
I had just come from having test done. Tests that many aging men and women have to have done. But I wasn’t ready for the tests or the probability of the results. My moments of memory laps are too frequent and my concern of seizures had taken me to my primary care physician. He in turn ordered a battery of test and I’m sure the emotions I was feeling when I saw her were under the surface all along. They just needed a reason to burst forth in a rush of tears that I tried desperately to hold back.
I moved passed them careful not to stop. When my basket safely passed her I heard her companion say, “Now you must be careful. You know you don’t have much money. You can’t have everything you see.”
That is all it took for an argument to start in my head. “Lord, what shall I do?” I prayed as I walked forgetting the grocery shopping I was supposed to be doing. Milk and bread or cereal took a back seat to the moment.
“Oh Lord, I can’t handle this. What can I do?” Somehow I saw myself. The need to do something for her overwhelmed me.
“I don’t have but five dollars on me” I argued with myself. “That wouldn’t do much. Well, I could go to the check out stand and arrange to pay her bill,” my emotional struggle continued.
I wiped my tears just to have another flood come rolling down my face. By the time I finished my prayer and the discussion with myself, I was on the opposite side of the store than my friend was. Friend? Yes. For I felt an attachment somehow to the lady with the bruised face. I had fallen on concrete once, and broke the right side of my face, including the eye socket bone, and it was difficult for me to go out in public for awhile. I felt the stares of people who wondered what had happened but was afraid to ask. My black eye and bruised face, let you know I may have been the loser in a fight!
Observing the gentleness with which her companion treated her, I accepted that instead of being the victim of Elder abuse, that she, like I, had fallen. I felt for the five dollar bill in my pocket and held it tight in my hand in a folded position. I didn’t know any other way to do it. I had made up my mind that what I had on me was all I needed to do.
They were busy examining fruit. She picked up a bag of oranges. Then a bag of apples. Her companion helped her make a selection.
“Pardon me mamm”, I said as I tapped her companion on the shoulder. “Would you take this and see that she has a treat - something special that she wouldn’t otherwise purchase. It isn’t much but I can’t stand the thought of her wanting something and not being able to get it”. The words came out tumbling out unrehearsed almost in one sentence.
With a question mark written on her face, the lady took the folded money momentarily, at least while I finished my discourse. My friend occupied herself with the abundance of fruit that lay in mounds on the tables, paying no attention to the conversation that was going on a few steps away.
“Oh honey, you don’t understand.” the companion spoke gently. “This is so sweet of you but please take it back. You see, her family has to limit her spending, for she would buy everything in the store.” She went on to tell me that my friend loved shopping, and I had to agree that I did too.
On hearing her story, I took back the folded money and placed it in my pocket. My tears were dried, but the lump in my throat was still there. It still is. The picture of the bruised face, framed by the gray unkempt hair, and the shuffling of the feet of a stranger that affected me so, is in front of me as I write. The stranger I call a friend..
I work in a multinational company in Brazil. In 2003 Headquarters sent us a "Lean Operation Manager". As his secretary, I struggled to communicate with Mr. Thomas in limited English. Rushing to the airport to return to his family in Germany, he crashed his rented Mercedes. He called, speaking rapidly in German, and I panicked. I couldn't understand, and he was very far away. Mr. Thomas spoke no Portuguese.
Kort agter vergelyk, is beheer. Mense wat behep daarmee is om te beheer gebruik baie keer manipulasie, skimpe en verskuilde dreigemente. Genade en guns is nie eintlik hulle sterkpunte nie, want hulle is eiewys en dink dat hulle alwetend is (vergelyk Rom. 12:16). Sien jy enige van die eienskappe in jouself raak? Dink net hoeveel gelukkiger jy kan wees as jy nie meer mense om jou en die uitkoms van situasies sal probeer beheer nie. Dennis Leonard het geskryf: "Gee aan jou geliefdes die waardigheid om hulle eie foute te maak en daaruit te leer. As jy altyd gaan inmeng in iemand anders se lewe, gaan jy nie net uitbrand nie, jy weerhou God daarvan om in hulle lewe te werk. Hulle behoort aan Hom, nie aan jou nie!
A woodchuck only breathes 10 times during hibernation.
I left work early so I could have some uninterrupted study time right before the final in my Youth Issues class. When I got to class, everybody was doing their last minute studying. The teacher came in and said he would review with us for just a little bit before the test. We went through the review, most of it right on the study guide, but there were some things he was reviewing that I had never heard of. When questioned about it, he said that they were in the book and we were responsible for everything in the book. We couldn't really argue with that.
So Happy