| Philippians 2:3 – “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” |
The magic table. A man is excited to show his wife something. “Honey, you are not going to believe this. But it works. Every time I leave stuff on the coffee table, I come in the next day and it is all gone. I didn’t believe it at first, so I tested it. I piled a pizza box, my socks, my shoes, the remote. . . all kinds of things, and the next morning, the table was clean and all that stuff was where it should be. This thing is great! You need to try it sometime.” His wife looked at him with those eyes that kill.
The cable guy was working in their den at the time. “We have a magic table at my house. What he is saying is true.” Magic tables really do exist. And they exist because there are magic people. My underwear appear in my drawer, folded and clean. The dishes appear in the cupboard clean and in their places.
My friend Russell Scott once lived in Nebraska and told about a man who died there. This man was quiet and not one a lot of people knew a lot about. They had a heavy snowfall soon after he died. The members of the church came for worship. They trudged up the deep snow to the door. The doors were locked. They got the doors open eventually, and inside, they could see their breath. The heat was not on. This man’s magic began to show. He was the one who shoveled the sidewalks, unlocked the doors, and pre-heated the building for those coming to worship. His labor of love shone brightly after he was gone, seemingly invisible while he was alive.
I started doing some little things. I try to take out the trash when I notice it is full (before I am asked to do it.) My wife will dump the clothes she has removed from the dryer onto our spare bed for folding later. I see them lying there and fold them and put them away, before she asks me to. I am trying to be one of those magic people too.
Father in heaven, help us to place others ahead of ourselves, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
-Jeff Beall
